Frights, Trauma, Action!
by Everlite
Summary: Eight teenage girls and boys win starring roles in a play. However, when the dangerous secrets of the theater start to unroll, the show turns to a nightmare...still starring them.
1. Chapter 1

**Frights, trauma, action!**

**Hey guys! This is a fic I'm making just because I'm in the spirit of theater lately since I got a role in the school play. I would much prefer to be playing sports, but since I tore the cartilage in my elbow, I can't do a sport this season and was left with no choice. Anyway, since I'm in the theater mood, I decided to write a fic about it. However…though it's about theater, it's an Action/adventure/romance fic, so that means there are more deep plotlines than you might think. I know this first chapter sucks, but trust me, things will get better. This story won't live up to my other ones, but you never know if you don't try, right?**

**REALLY hoping at least some of you enjoy it!**

**(VERY AUish but has series references)**

**Summary:**

**Eight teenage girls and boys win starring rolls in a play. However, there are dangerous secrets to the theater they have yet to realize, and when they start to unroll, the show turns into a nightmare…still starring them.**

**Pairings: NejixTen, SasuxSaku, InoxShika, NaruxHina (Although this pairing may be a bit on the down low since it's hard to write about, so please don't kill me!)**

Chapter 1:

Prelude: Extras and Shattered Glass

"Last call for auditions for the rolls of Kailey, Amber, Lydia and Mindy!" Kurenai, the theater director's voice wrung throughout the Mantwell Theater, reaching all ears of those in a ten-mile radius.

Nearby, the girls Tenten, Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno and Hinata Hyuuga covered their ears against the sharp sound. The walls of the theater were made to project even a whisper said by those onstage, so with Kurenai yelling as she did, it made them feel like their eardrums had imploded.

"I _said…_" Kurenai repeated in a lower voice.

"Oh god," dreaded Sakura, putting her head in her lap. "Here it comes…"

"_ANYONE PLANNING ON AUDITIONING FOR THE ROLLS OF KAILEY, AMBER, LYDIA OR MINDY BETTER GET ON THIS STAGE BECAUSE THIS IS IT!!!"_

Needless to say, the girls fell out of their seats.

"I'm pretty sure what I just fell on wasn't inanimate…" groaned Tenten into the ground, jumbled between Ino and Sakura.

"Agh!" Ino twitched. "Something's crawling up my ankle…"

"It's nothing," Hinata assured her. "I was just getting up, I brushed it on accident."

"Phew…" Ino sighed.

The girls were auditioning for a play showing at a nearby theater- the four had always been interested in acting, but never put themselves to the test. One day, though, they finally broke down and decided to audition for rolls in the rather minor showcase known as _A Parallel World._

It was pretty much the most whacked out script they had ever read, but you know what they say…you've got to start from the bottom before you get to the top.

Once the girls settled back into the theater seats, they looked onstage at what they called their "competition." They had auditioned for the rolls the day before, Tenten as Kailey, Ino as Amber, Sakura as Lydia and Hinata as Mindy. They considered their performances average, in contrast to what they've seen, but were overjoyed when Kurenai gave each of them a beaming "fantastic." One couldn't base a decision off that word, but it sure made their days.

"Check out the Morquette-Quartet," said Tenten, pointing subtly at four girls on the stage.

"Joy," said Sakura sarcastically, resting her chin on her hand as all their eyes fell on the girls.

Rachel, Katie, Laya and Erin Morquette were quadruplets who had been obsessed with competing with the girls since birth. The girls didn't _hate_ the quadruplets, but their overly spastic and competitive states of being just…miffed them. Thus, earning the name "the Morquette-Quartet", courtesy of Tenten.

At the moment, the quartet was auditioning for the parts the girls were. Or at least it appeared so, probably would be more if the four would get their minds made up.

"I'm Rachel and I'll be auditioning for Kailey," Rachel declared to Kurenai, finally stepping out.

"Nuh uh! We went over this last night…_I'm _Kailey, you're Mindy!" Laya stomped forward, waving the script sample in her sister's face.

"Uh, newsflash Laya?" Rachel scoffed, swiping the flapping script out of Laya's hands. "How can I be playing Mindy if Katie's playing Mindy?"

"Whoa, when was that decided?" Katie asked, stepping forward, putting her hands out between her two sisters. "I memorized Amber's monologue last night, I _know _I did not waste all that time just to end up-"

"Slow down!" Erin interrupted, putting her hands over her ears. "_I _memorized Amber, because I thought _you _were memorizing Lydia!"

"…Who's Lydia?"

"The girl in the script who you were _supposed _to have memorized!"

"OH the one with the brown hair?"

"No, that would be Kailey."

"Who, may I make clear, will be played by _me," _Rachel added, waving her finger at the two. Laya stomped forward, ready to throttle Rachel.

"For the LAST time, I'M Kailey!"

The girl's voices soon became unreadable as their conflict turned into what sounded like the squawks of numerous pigeons. The only words that could be made out were "No, _I _am!" and "No, _she _is!". The girls watched the quartet in amusement. Around those four, there was never a dull moment…which depending on the case could be good or bad.

"Girls…erm, um, girls??" Kurenai struggled to speak above the girls rising voices. However, her voice went unheard as the quarter continued to squabble. "Girls, please, we don't have time for this," she asked more earnestly, as she stood up this time, hoping for it to make her seem the least bit more intimidating. No such luck however, as the girls still lashed out at each other.

Kurenai sighed.

"Looks like they leave me no choice…"

Tenten, Ino, Sakura and Hinata, sitting three rows back from Kurenai all looked at each other in alarm.

"Ah, no…" Tenten shook her head ferociously as she bit her nails.

"Oh god, here we go…" Ino said this as all four of them cautiously squinted their eyes shut and covered their ears, knowing what would come next.

"SHUT YOUR YAMMERING PIE HOLES BEFORE I PERSONALLY MARCH UP THERE AND SEW THEM SHUT MYSELF!!!!!!!!!"

Since the girls had prepared themselves this time, this screech didn't come off nearly as startling as the first…however, it was nonetheless scary.

The Morquette-Quartet must have thought so as well, for they all shut their mouths simultaneously after Kurenai's outburst. They sheepishly turned towards Kurenai, all their eyes widened in shock.

"Damn, how I wish I had a camera…" Tenten snickered evilly as she peered over the seat at the four stunned girls.

"Y-yes Kurenai?" Katie asked shakily as she mustered a smile.

"I have an idea," Kurenai beamed, suddenly looking all angelic and calm. Quite the metamorphosis.

"Go ahead, Ms. Kurenai?" Laya offered sweetly, trying to reconcile.

"How about you girls play these wonderful roles we know as…." Kurenai waited to prolong the tension and add to effect. "Extras!" She said this enthusiastically, as if it were the greatest honor the gods could ever hand down.

The quartet looked at one another while the four girls in the seats struggled to suppress their giggles.

There was a pause as the quadruplets exchanged a meaningful silence, as if communicating with one another telepathically rather than speaking.

Finally, Erin broke the silence.

"What's an extra?"

Now, the seated girls faces turned beat red as their laughs became harder and harder to silence. It was as if their cheeks were overstuffed pillowcases with the seems loosening and ready to snap.

Kurenai took a breath in as she walked out of her row of seats and walked up to the stage.

"Well, Erin," she explained hesitantly, putting her hands together. "An extra is a character that erm…" Kurenai struggled to find words to make the "role" of an extra seem as significant as humanly possible. "…Is on stage a majority of the scenes, particularly during the ones that involve a large public."

Kurenai knew she had to kick it up when she saw the quartets faces lift only a tiny bit.

"And better yet," Kurenai added, suddenly coming up with something that she knew would be convincing. "You get to change costumes _every scene_."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHH!!!!"

The Morquette-Quartet screeched squeals of joy as they joined hands and leapt (AN: If this were some weird family movie the camera would make them freeze in midair.)

"We're extras! We get to wear different clothes through the whole show!" Rachel said happily as the girls scuffled offstage past a relieved Kurenai. "Hey you!" she pointed at a random freckled kid with braces who was sitting in the back row. "Guess what we are?"

The freckled kid scratched his head as he squinted one eye, most likely a thinking habit of his. "…erm…?"

"EXTRAS!" The quartet screamed in unison, making the boy flinch as they began to skip down the isle to the exit.

"Hey guys!" Erin waved ferociously at the four girls as they skipped by their row. The four girls all laughed and waved back as they watched the quarter nearly trip over themselves as they enthusiastically spilled out the door.

(Many blinks. Random freckled kid runs out opposite exit muttering things that sound something like "psychopath girls" and "never auditioning again.")

"DAMN, am I glad that worked!"

The girls turned their head to Kurenai, who plopped down into the closest seat to her in exhaustion.

The girls took this time to walk out of their row and down to Kurenai. There had been many auditions that day as well as the day before, and Kurenai had experienced many more that were much worse than the quartet. Breaking the same sad news in a nice way forty times is no easy task.

"Tired Kurenai?" Sakura teased this as she tossed Kurenai a water bottle she picked up from a nearby cooler. Kurenai caught it with her left hand, popped the cap right off and chugged.

"Mentally, yes," Kurenai breathed, water droplets running down her chin from her careless chugs. She swiped up a napkin and dabbed the water off as she sighed. "I didn't know there were such…err…_oblivious_ aspiring actors in this town."

"Neither did I, actually," Tenten said, putting her hands behind her head as she cocked an eyebrow. "I heard that even Sasuke and Neji auditioned! Can you guys even _imagine_?"

All the girls burst into laughing.

"You're kidding, right?" Sakura asked between her gut suffocating laughs. "Sasuke the _Uchiha? _Did he lose a bet or something?"

"Oh my god," said Ino, putting her hand on her chest. "Just imagine if those two actually tried out for the leads? I swear I would drop dead if that were to happen!"

The girls kept laughing incredulously as Kurenai stood off to the side, biting her lip in amusement as four names store up at her from the clipboard she was holding. Each name by a main character's.

As the girl's laughing died down, Hinata noticed Kurenai's awkward silence to the side. "What's wrong, Kurenai?" Hinata asked this is concern, as everyday Hinata would.

"Erm…" Kurenai pursed her lips, not wanting to laugh. "Well, about that, turns out Shikamaru and Naruto signed up too and…"

"_Shikamaru??? NARUTO???"_

Kurenai squinted her eyes as the girls all screamed this. She braced herself for the worst, as she knew she hadn't gotten to the best part yet.

"And well…" She looked at the girls whose eyes were now wide. "They all tried out for the four leads of Ryan, Tyler, Cody and Jake."

Kurenai braced herself for screams of disbelief, but they never came. She opened her eyes to see the girls all looking at one another, faces red, their cheeks ready to burst.

And so the laughing fest began. Each girl laughed so hard that by the end of it, they all ended up curled up on the ground.

"I…can't…believe it…can they even act??" Tenten squealed in amusement as they all began to sit up.

"Pfft, I highly doubt that," said Sakura with a flip of her hair.

"Actually," Kurenai added to the girl's surprise. "On the contrary, they're all phenomenal actors." The girls all exchanged another look of amazement, but as all they're laughing juice had ran out, they remained quiet. Kurenai shrugged. "Surprised me too."

"Wait, wait, wait, lemme get this straight," Ino closed her eyes and waved her hands around. "So you mean to say the arrogant jerks from the academy, the bad ass ninjas, the fighting geniuses…they auditioned for a local play…and are being considered for the leads??"

They all turned to Kurenai, who nodded slowly. "Spot on," she said with a smile.

"My goodness," sighed Hinata, running her fingers through her now medium-lengthed hair. "I always knew that Naruto probably had some acting potential, but _Neji…_" she shook her head. "Never."

"Well, he seemed to do pretty well," Kurenai said. "Especially because the part of Cody is a very serious intellectual one. Neji didn't need to put his whole soul into pulling that one off, I must admit."

"Yeah," agreed Tenten with a smirk, sitting in one of the seats by the small table Kurenai was sitting at. "That just _might_ have helped."

When the girls were genins, they would admit, they were crushing hard on each one of their guys. But then, after friendships reconciled and the Chuunin exams ended, they all saw the guys as arrogant, but still hot. Arrogant hotties would be the correct terms for the guys. So of course, the girls relished in the fact that the arrogant jerks were breaking down and auditioning for a play.

"Well girls, you better be getting home now- I know I am," Kurenai sighed in relaxation at the thought of going home. She picked up her keys. "The theater's closed tomorrow, so call backs will be posted on the front door in the afternoon. Rehearsals will start the day after."

"Which theater?" Ino asked this in regards to the fact that there were two theaters- the one they were at, where they would perform the main performances, auditions and big rehearsals, and the one on the other side of Konoha which was smaller but located more conveniently by where a majority of everyone lived, so they often had regular rehearsals there.

"Eh, the other one, it's in better shape. Besides, I'm not up to the half-hour long drive," Kurenai said, her eyes lolling back at the mere thought of it.

"Alright, the other one it is. See you," Sakura said in farewell.

I'll see you girls then!" Kurenai gave them a wave goodbye as she walked up the isle way up to the exit door. "By the way," she added before turning the knob. "Backdoor's unlocked, you can go out that way if you want as long as you lock it afterwards. Spare keys are under the prop box."

With that, Kurenai left and closed the door.

"You think they did it as a joke?" Tenten asked the other three girls this regarding the guys' auditions as they started walking back stage to the prop box.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Ino replied simply as they pushed by the side curtain entrance to get back stage. "They'd just _love_ to stick it to the community that way."

"Ha, well, how low they have sank will keep me laughing for days, smiling at the least," Sakura laughed as they all walked to the large prop box in the far corner of the backstage area next to the costumes.

Hinata kneeled down next to the box. "She said the key was underneath the box?

"That's right," Tenten replied, lifting the box a few inches with little effort, as she was always the one with the most presentable arm strength.

Hinata held her arm out under the box and felt around the ground. "Ah," she said, her fingers running over a rigid object. She grabbed hold of it and pulled it out from under the box.

"Um."

"What?" Hinata asked Sakura at her awkward response to what Hinata pulled out.

"Uh….try looking at what's in your hand," Ino suggested with just as much discomfort as Sakura.

Confused, Hinata looked slowly down at what she thought was a key in her hand. However…

It turned out to be something much different.

"The hell is that?" Tenten took the object from Hinata and held it up to the sun. She squinted her eyes. "It's translucent."

The object was flat and had a variety of colors in it. It contained flecks of red, blue, green, yellow, pink, purple, and many other blends. It looked transparent, but light could not shine through it, or at least as far as Tenten saw. It looked like a crystal-like glass, which only mystified the girls even more. Since when were there crystals or glass that were multicolored?

"Uh…maybe it's just a peace of glass?" Hinata asked this lightly, as it seemed to be the most realistic explanation yet. "The colors could be manmade into it," she explained. "…Somehow."

"Maybe," Tenten said, bending down onto her knees to look under the prop box again after tossing the peace to Sakura. "But maybe not." As she said these last words, she looked back up at Hinata inclusively, as if to say _don't pretend you didn't get the strange feeling we got when you pulled that out. _After she did, she returned to shuffling her hand under the box every which way until her hand ran over something.

"Here," Tenten said, pulling her arm back out from under the box to reveal a brass key. "If you had gone a bit more to the left, you would have gotten it," she told Hinata, giving her the key.

Hinata took it, her cheeks red at the fact that Tenten had found it so easily when she herself hadn't even grazed it, better yet ended up pulling some other random thing out.

"Let's get out of here now," said Tenten with a smile, patting Hinata on the shoulder and walking off.

"Yeah," Hinata said to herself, as she stood there. "I guess." She sighed and turned as she started walking with her friends.

"I think it's kind of pretty," shrugged Sakura as they walked. She flipped it over in her hand. "Looks to me like- woops! Ack!"

The piece of glass fumbled in Sakura's hands after she flipped it over, and it fell completely out of her palms and hit the floor, shattering. Everyone took a breath intake at the unexpected accident.

Sakura looked up frantically at her friends. "I'm sorry!" Even though she didn't really know why she was apologizing, she felt it was necessary.

"Don't worry about it," shrugged Ino. "It's just an old piece of- WHAT THE HELL?"

Ino's sentence was cut off as the ground in the theater began to shake roughly. The ground was shaking so hard that things toppled off shelves and costume racks fell over.

The girls started tripping over their feet as the planks of the theater began to rattle, some actually flexing above their original placement. It was freaking the girls out.

"Is it an earthquake?!" Ino shouted this over the conflicting noises brought on by all the shaking.

"Impossible," Sakura shouted back. "Konoha is located centrally on the continental plate it resides on," she exclaimed this as all the girls grabbed onto stationary objects for support, slowly making their way to the exit door. "From a scientific standpoint, this shouldn't be happening!"

"Well, from a realistic standpoint, IT IS!" Tenten shouted this back as she fell to her knees due to a blank bumping her off her feet. She began crawling towards the door. "And from the same realistic standpoint, my senses tell me if we stay in here any longer, the roof will give out on us!"

This last comment really alarmed the girls, and was evident when they began struggling even faster to get to the exit.

"I've got the key!" Hinata squealed as she made her way to the doorknob. She grabbed it to stabilize herself.

Hinata kept trying to insert the key into the hole, but due to the shaking, she ended up scratching the sides of the lock each time. She growled in frustration. It was like she was drunken person trying to unlock her car.

"Here, let me try," Ino offered, Hinata giving the key right to her in a 'be my guest' way. Instead of being steady and careful like Hinata, Ino just quickly thrust the key into the hole. And wouldn't you know it, it hit dead on.

"How did you do that?" Hinata asked this, flabbergasted at the fact that yet again, she had been outmaneuvered by one of her friends.

"If you do it quickly then your hand doesn't have time to shake," Ino explained to her simply as she began to turn the lock. The lock was rusted, making it difficult to turn. "Can someone give me a hand here?"

The other three girls did just that as they all took a section of the key and turned it with all their might. To their relief, they heard it tick forward as the key began to turn. They averted their eyes from the flecks of rust that were flinging out as they did.

The floorboards were shaking even harder now, and the atmosphere was getting even more dangerous.

"Come on, come on…" Tenten pleaded with no one in particular as they all pushed the door as hard as they could. _This is what happens when you lock your doors from the inside, Kurenai!_

"Maybe if we just- Ack!" Sakura was cut off mid-sentence as the door all of a sudden opened almost easily, sending them all flying out with force.

"Agh!!!" Ino squealed this as all the girls went flying through the air. The door was on an elevated platform that had stairs leading down to the grass, but due to the fact that the girls were thrust so forcefully, they forwent the stairs completely and were just sent flying into the open air.

They each could see the ground below them. They each knew it was going to hurt like no other. They each knew-

"Umph!"

"Erk…"

"Hmph…"

"Eh?"

The girls certainly did hit something alright, but it definitely didn't feel like the ground. In fact, what they landed on felt rather warm. And did the "umph"s they heard sound…masculine?

All the girls thought the same thing sarcastically.

_Great…just the guys we wanted to see._

**(Hits self numerous times with stupid stick) So not proud of this chapter. At all. The second chapter is better (I'll bet you can guess who's gonna show up ; ), I swear to post it when it's done but it may take a while, I'm so sorry! Third quarter at school is always the worst, so please don't get too impatient with me if you don't mind. Again, I'm sorry for the uninteresting and sucky chapter…but I assure you, everything in it is significant for future events. Thanks for reading! I really hope you guys review! If you have any constructive criticism or stuff you'd like to see later please don't be afraid to speak up! I'd love to hear it, honestly! Thanks!**


	2. Heated Interrogations

**OH MY GOD! I love you guys! I was so nervous about posting this story, because as I was writing it, I could literally feel it's rough edges poking into my sides, so I wasn't too sure about it. But now I'm a bit more confident about it. Not too confident about it, I still don't think it will surpass Holiday or Highschool, but just…more confident.**

**About the glass thing, that's one of my shreds of foreshadowing. If you've read a lot of my stories, you'll know that I foreshadow heavily in the first few chapters, and every thing becomes significant later in the plot. So if you get confused about things, don't worry, they'll be answered soon! Just a hint: Remember the breaking glass part.**

**Anyways, I really want to thank these people for reviewing my story. It's honestly all you guys who inspired me to make a second chapter.**

**9-DArK-Moon-4**

**xTxNxLx**

**Chibi-Penguin-Chan**

**Parade**

**Matahari**

**Sharkpups24**

**SarcasticallyTroublesomeGirl**

**Doodlebop8993**

**Nefaith**

**Spetaine**

**Tsukiko Yuki**

**Dreaming101**

**Shikyo Yaiba**

**Kittinz**

**Yukimo**

**You guys are the best.**

**Anyway, I'll actually let you read the story now. Enjoy!**

Chapter 2:

Heated Interrogations

"Hey Pink, why not try laying off the éclairs a bit?"

"Why you…who do you think…"

Sakura opened her eyes to look at what, or rather, _whom_ she had landed on, and not to mention _insulted_ her. However, she didn't need to see who it was to know the voice that spoke.

"Oh, it's you Uchiha," she said grudgingly, narrowing her eyes at the navy haired and t-shirted teenage boy, who was none other than Sasuke Uchiha, lying below her weight. He was looking back up at her with just as much malice in his eyes, but an obviously evil smile on his face, still proud of his stab at Sakura.

"Nothing gets passed you, eh?" He pushed Sakura off of him roughly as he said this, standing up and brushing his clothes off. Sakura rolled to the side and quickly stood up, so as not to let him damage her pride.

"And by the way, mind straightening the hem of that skirt a bit, Ino?" Sasuke turned away from the now fuming Sakura and looked down at Ino, who had appeared to have fallen atop a spiky-pony tailed boy who had strikingly lazy eyes. However, while there, she had failed to notice that the hem of her skirt was in fact riding dangerously high.

" I don't need to see as well up your skirt as I did Sakura's nose a few seconds ago," Sasuke continued as-a-matter-of-factly as he shot the now livid Sakura a withering look. "And I'm sure Shikamaru doesn't either," he added, gesturing the boy Ino had fallen on.

Ino looked down at the boy who was Shikamaru and made a putrid face as she subtly tugged her skirt line down, secretly embarrassed by Sasuke's remark.

"Oh, hello Shikamaru, I didn't notice that was you. Tell me, did you cut your hair, or did your head just get even bigger?" Ino tapped the annoyed Shikamaru's temple. He muttered something intelligible as he swatted her hand away.

"Well, I do definitely see that your hair isn't getting any shorter," he said, eyeing Ino's extremely long hair. "And to answer your question, neither. I think you're just getting more delusional. Now would you mind getting off of me?" Shikamaru didn't so much as pause for a response, and instead lifted himself up without warning to Ino's shock. As he rose, Ino hit the ground.

"What was that for," she whimpered, rubbing her side, looking at him accusingly.

"Well, forgive me if I found the position we were in a bit disconcerting," he shot back, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking at the sky carelessly as if to prove to Ino that he wouldn't have cared if she had snapped her spleen and died just then.

As Ino glared up at him, she had to admit, the position was a bit provocative. She had fallen so that her lower body was just about in between his legs and her torso was against his. Judging by those facts, she couldn't blame him for feeling a bit, erm, uncomfortable.

But of course, she wasn't about to say that aloud.

"Grow up," Ino scoffed, flipping her hair behind her shoulder as she stood up, pretending to be unaffected. Shikamaru simply rolled his eyes in response.

"Too troublesome, try again later," he said with a wave of his hand as he began to whistle nonchalantly and turn away from Ino, only making her even more mad.

Agh, I swear, one day that little… 

"Aw, look at the little Neji…still combing our hair to perfection are we now?" Only feet away from Ino, Tenten had picked up a strand of Neji's long raven black hair that had fallen out of the low ponytail he always wore and twirled it in her fingers in mock-adoration. "So do you use Sunsilk or Herbal Essence's 'Hello Hydration?'? Because your hair looks _exactly_ like that _woman's _from the Herbal Essences commercial, but it definitely _smells_ like Sunsilk…so which one do you use?" Tenten took oh so much joy in mocking Neji about his feminine-like hairstyle.

Neji yanked his thread of hair back, peeved obviously, but still keeping an untainted expression on his face. "I think the real question here is, has your hair even been exposed to life outside your buns?" he tweaked one of Tenten's buns as he said this, making Tenten look down at him murderously. "Because from the day I first saw you, after I got over some severe eye damage, I've never seen you take them out once."

Tenten glared down at him as she let the dark strand of hair fall out of her hand. "Oh, you'll so pay for that pretty boy," she challenged him, shaking her head.

However, Tenten wasn't aware of just how challenging her remark came off, since Neji, quick as a flash, rolled over so he and Tenten had switched positions. Now, Tenten was below him in the more vulnerable position, Neji above her with his Byakugan activated.

"Are you sure about that, Tenten?" He asked this with a defiant smirk on his face, his eyes feeling to Tenten like they were boring holes into her.

"You don't have the guts," Tenten spat back, unsure of what really to do. She was just sure that she wasn't about to admit her defeat to Neji.

"I'm not sure if you know this, Tenten," Neji said as-a-matter-of-factly. "But my Byakugan allows me to see through the surface and into one's soul. Believe me, if I can see through a fifty mile wide forest, I can see through your lies." Tenten had to struggle to suppress the blush that was ready to tint her face. "And there's no use hiding your blush, I can see your embarrassment too," he added; only making Tenten even more angry.

"You wish," she muttered, though she wasn't sure why. Neji could in fact see through her lies. But at that point, she was taking pride in not admitting anything out loud at least.

"I'll ask you again," Neji continued, ignoring Tenten's comment. "Are you sure about that, Tenten?"

Tenten looked into his white eyes as he looked back into her brown ones. The contrast of the two colors was incredible. Staring into Neji's dead white eyes was starting to make Tenten feel…she didn't know how to describe it with a word other than…

Nauseous.

"Whatever, get off me already," Tenten said quietly, attempting to push Neji's strong as steel wrists away from either sides of her shoulders where he had her pinned down. Neji at first would not relinquish his hold. Then, after a few glares from Tenten, he gave a sigh and his Byakugan retreated. He let Tenten free. As soon as he took his arms away, she scrambled to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. Her shirt was a V-neck, so she was curious as to how much Neji might have seen. Although he hardly seemed like the pervish type, it still made her sick.

When Tenten and Neji were done throwing daggers at one another with their eyes, Neji turned to Naruto and Hinata, who were both sitting on their butts on the ground. It was quite obvious that Hinata didn't waste any time getting off Naruto after he broke her fall.

"You alright, Hinata?" Neji asked this of the small navy-blue haired girl. "After all, you are in fact the fragile one of the family. It would just be such a catastrophe if anything were to happen to _Lady_ Hinata."

This was an obvious stab at Hinata's pride.

"Neji, cousin," Hinata spoke with reason to Neji, her eyes not meeting his. "Don't take your anger out on me. The separation of the families is beyond you and me." Hinata rarely said anything to Neji, and when she did, it was never harsh words. So by the murderous look that rose in Neji's eyes after Hinata said this, she knew right away that sticking around would not be a good idea.

Hinata started backing up. However, as she did, her foot caught on something. "Whoa!" Hinata fell backwards on her back with a thump.

"Haha! Gotcha!" A blond spiky haired boy leapt up from the ground and pointed at Hinata in ridicule as he laughed hysterically.

Hinata, hiding the immense pain in her butt, bit her lip and stared up at Naruto in frustration. "You're so….immature!" Hinata said for lack of a better insult.

"Hah, immature? Well if you were me, you'd be laughing your ass off too!"

Hinata's face fell, unsure of a comeback. She looked at Sakura and Ino, who both hitched their necks at Naruto with stone cold looks. Ino mouthed the words "go on!". Hinata knew they meant for her to say a smart retort back. Over the years, they had been teaching her to stand up for herself. She was getting better at it every day.

"Well…it's a good thing I'm not you isn't it!" Hinata said in a brave voice, following her friend's orders. Even Naruto looked taken back at the fact that Hinata had said something in her own defense. But unfortunately, his shock melted into a lazy grin.

"Well," he said with a shrug. "Nobody's perfect."

Hinata bit her lip and glared. Why are guys always well equipped with comebacks?

"You're a dweeb, Naruto," scoffed Tenten, walking over to Hinata and pulling up. Hinata reluctantly accepted her hand, although she was still a bit angry that her friends still had to fight her battles. "Come on, Hinata." Naruto simply rolled his eyes at the lame comeback.

Hinata walked alongside Tenten to Ino and Sakura, who had huddled together so as to be as far from Sasuke and Shikamaru as they could.

"So," Neji said, laughing mentally at the fact the girls were backing away from them like they carried the Cobra Disease. "What were you girls doing here anyway?"

"Why do you care?" Tenten retorted.

"I don't," Neji shrugged. "But it'd be good to know what you do in your free time when you're not sitting on your couches with a box of truffles and a tissue box, watching reruns of _The OC." _

"That was one time…" Tenten muttered, not looking Neji in the eye. "But if you must know, we were here to watch the auditions. Happy?"

"Checkin out the competition, huh?" Sasuke asked this to Sakura more so than he did Tenten.

"I guess you could say that," sighed Sakura. "What about you?"

"What about us?" Sasuke said this with a casual shrug.

"What are you doing here?" Sakura stroked her chin in suspicion. After all, it was odd that they just so happened to be by the theater.

This question obviously struck something in the guys. They looked at each other, showing their alarm not with their faces, but with their eyes. The girls however, could always read their emotions through their eyes…because they used to look at them all the time when they were genins.

But, oh, those days were long gone.

"Well," Shikamaru spoke up, being the one who could make up the most plausible lies on his feet. "We just were thinking that we could come here and have a good laugh at the drama nerds that inhabit here," he said gesturing the theater. "And what do you know?" He shot Ino a smug look. "We've accomplished it."

Ino dropped her hands from her sides and balled them into fists at her sides.

"Oh? Really?" she asked this as she took a step closer to Shikamaru to emphasize her point. "That's funny, because from what I've heard, you guys auditioned too." The guys' faces immediately looked as if they had turned to stone. "Oh, oops!" Ino pretended to be shocked as she covered her mouth with her hand. "We weren't supposed to know that were we? Oh, well, I guess this one can slide…but if you actually got the part, then we'd be in real trouble!"

The boys laughed in their heads nervously, as if the idea were ludicrous.

"It's kind of sweet, actually," Tenten said, playing along with Ino, with a fake enchanted look on her face. "That you guys found an outlet for your Shakespearian sides."

Sasuke and Neji's eyes twitched. _Shakespearian….sides…?_

"Oh! Look at the time!" Sakura looked at her watch. "We better get going…we've got some stuff to tend to," she said, wanted to get out while the guys were still without a comeback. "You know, more important stuff. Later!"

Picking up on Sakura's game, the other three girls, with one last glare of triumph at the speechless guy across from them, followed behind Sakura who turned on her heel. To add to the defiant effect, all their hair swung as they turned (well, except Tenten's.)

"Wait just a minute here!"

All the girls stopped in their tracks. _Damn…_they each thought. _So frickin close!_

They all slowly turned around to face the boys, who were looking at them with malicious half-smirks. They made the girl's feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Why are you looking at us like that?" Ino snapped at them, fighting back the nervousness in her voice.

"Well?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, what?"

"Aren't you going to tell us what you were doing flying through the air and nearly squashing us to death?" Sakura felt like punching him as he said the last part of this sentence. And not just because they had managed to change the subject completely.

"Don't be stupid," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "It was because of that random earthquake, duh." The other three girls nodded in back up.

The guys looked at one another and raised their eyebrows. Now, the girls felt even more uncomfortable.

"Ugh, what now?" Tenten asked this impatiently.

Neji and he other guys just looked at her confusedly. Neji crossed his arms and eyed her oddly.

"What earthquake?"

**OOOH SHOCK! Not really though. This last part will be probed further in the next chapter. And by the way, there's a reason the guys evaded the subject of their auditions, so that wasn't forgetful writing or anything, though that does happen to me a lot. I hope you stick with this story, guys! You know that it takes at least a few chapters for the plot to arc, so don't worry, the plot will thicken!**


	3. Battle of the Sexes

**AM. SO. SORRY. TO. EACH. AND. EVERY. ONE. OF.YOU.**

**I haven't updated in an eternity's time, I know this. It's just that a lot has been going on lately, I have a project and a paper in each subject (a ritual they always drop on us at the end of third quarter), my mom hasn't been home for three weeks, and my grandfather just died. I'm not trying to roll in self-pity here though, because it was definitely time for him to go, he was in very much pain. **

**But yeah, those are my pathetic excuses for having been away for so long. Not to mention I had three different documents of this chapter, and I had no idea which version to use. **

**So, again, I'm so sorry, I hope you guys' interest in this story hasn't been jaded too much from the delay.**

Chapter 3:

Battle of the Sexes

"Don't play dumb," Tenten said, almost echoing Sakura's words. "There was an earthquake literally three minutes ago!"

She looked at Neji, who was looking at her as if she were some insane person. If there was anything Tenten hated, and there were honestly very little things in the world she hated, it was being looked at like a freak. She narrowed her eyes at him. He simply cocked an eyebrow in response.

"There was!" She spat at him, immediately biting her lip after. _Nice one, Tenten, very nice,_ she mentally applauded herself sarcastically. _Let's just keep on giving him more reasons to strike at me- and win._

"Stop looking at us like that!" Sakura said defensively, catching the collective looks of puzzlement on the guys' faces. "We found this weird piece of glass under a box, and then I dropped it on accident, and it shattered, and then the whole theater just started to shake!"

Silence. A long, twisted, silence just followed after Sakura actually thought about what she said.

_Well, damn it, _she cursed. _At least that made sense. _

Now, the guys just started laughing at them as if they had just insisted that algebra had a purpose (AN: sorry about that…I'm kind of multi-tasking with my homework…)

"Wait, wait, ok, wait a minute," chuckled Sasuke, shaking his hands. "So lemme get this straight, you girls decided 'hey, let's go look under a box', did so and found a piece of glass, were easily amused by it, and Sakura in all of her excitement over the little piece of glass, dropped it and it broke, causing an earthquake that effected only the theater." He clapped his hands together. "Well, I think I've got it now!"

"Yes- wha, no, but you-" Sakura began. However, she was cut off by none other then Shikamaru, as he sauntered on over to Ino, who simply scowled at every step he took towards her. She considered stepping back too, but she didn't want to appear weak. Shikamaru then stopped a few feet before them.

"Well, thank you girls, for a very lovely waste of a good fifteen minutes," he said, taking a gallant bow, as well as Ino's hand. Ino's face contorted as she tried to yank her hand away. However, the strength of Shikamaru's grip exceeded her own. _What does he think he's doing?? _Shikamaru just went on, though.

"And trust me, it _was_ lovely…" Now, he brought Ino's hand dangerously close to his lips. Close enough for Ino to feel the heat of his breath on her skin. Close enough to make Ino's face turn involuntarily pink.

Shikamaru peered up at her with a slick grin, obviously satisfied at her reaction to his sarcastic exploit.

"Is it just me, Ino, or is this tension _killing_ you?" He asked her this with an almost sickly grin on his lazy face. He kept Ino's hands millimeters away from his lips.

Ino's face wrinkled at this trick. Now, Ino understood his game, and was not going to let him win at it. Coming to her senses, she yanked back her hand quickly with thrice the strength she did before and held her wrist with her other one.

"Get off me rat, spare me the aneurysm, please," She scoffed, stroking her hand possessively as if it were a precious artifact that had nearly been tainted.

Shikamaru just looked at her with a satisfied grin and gave a lazy sigh as he scratched the back of his head.

"You just keep thinking that," he laughed into a yawn. "Troublesome woman…"

"Your comeback leaves me numb, truly," Ino replied sarcastically as Shikamaru walked carelessly back to his friends, happy that he succeeded in annoying Ino for about the billionth time in the last three years. _Chalk one up for Shikamaru, _he thought, grinning.

"So, what was really your intent in coming here, besides getting on our nerves to no end?" Sakura asked them in a sigh, intending to get to the bottom of things.

"Maybe I'm just on crack, but it think we've told you that already," answered Naruto slowly, a confused look on his face.

At this time, Sakura nudged Hinata.

"Time for your revenge!" She hissed into Hinata's ear.

"Um?" Hinata looked up at Sakura, unsurely.

"He tripped you!"

"…"

"Just say something!" Sakura mouthed.

Hinata hesitantly turned to Naruto. "Erm…" She began. "I think you're just on crack."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up, obviously having expected that from one of the other three girls, but not from Hinata. _What's the deal with her? _He thought. _Since when did she start making comebacks of any kind?_

Sakura gave a personal sigh. _It'll do for now._

A heavy stare-down followed, and a very weird moment occurred.

Both sides were empty of comebacks.

Even though they were both well aware of this fact, neither of them exactly wanted to turn back yet without certain closure. So instead, it was beginning to turn into more than a stare-down…each girls' eyes began to lock with the guys' across from them, and they were unconsciously not blinking…

Realizing this, Shikamaru cleared his throat. "Um," he began. He looked at Ino, who made what sounded like a snorting sound back.

"Fine," he succumbed. "Well, I have no doubts that Naruto's on crack…but do you really want to know why we came here?"

"No," Ino said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "We're sticking around to enjoy the view."

Shikamaru ignored her and started scratching his head again, as he closed his eyes. "Well, it's kind of hard to explain…"

"Just get on with it," urged Tenten impatiently.

"Alright, well, believe it or not-"

"**ALL EIGHT OF YOU PUT YOUR HANDS UP WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"**

What the- 

All eight of the teens were about to turn to the sources of this voice as they hesitantly brought their hands up, but they didn't get a chance.

Because right then, each of them felt a whack against the back of their heads from something that felt like the barrel of a rifle.

"Take them to the station," a raspy voice, which had most likely seen many cigarettes in the past, said. "We'll deal with the rest."

"Right, sir."

These were the last words any of the teenagers could hear before they each quickly slipped into unconsciousness.

**I hope the cliffy grabbed people's attention a bit. I apologize for the short length, but I'll but a lot of action in to compensate…I've learned from previous stories that if you don't make action immediate, things get really boring really fast. I hope you guys liked the chapter!**


	4. The Slammer

**Hey! Sorry, I'm not much in the talkative mood at the moment, so for the very first time, I'm going to just let you get right to reading!**

Chapter 4

The Slammer

"Wake up," a husky voice ordered sharply from above Tenten.

Tenten slowly lifted her eyelids open. She examined what portion of her surroundings she could just then…she was in a solid cell. _Just what I need…_ were her first thoughts. _To be in trouble with the law._

"Hey, did you hear me?" the voice said more fiercely now, grabbing her elbow, tugging her to her feet with almost no effort. Tenten's eyes yanked open at this sudden action. "Wake up!" he barked this at her until Tenten fully composed herself. "Come with me."

"Well at least you've got manners…" Tenten muttered to herself, rubbing her aching neck as she followed the beefy man out of the cell.

"What was that?"

"Eh…nothing."

"Then hurry up!" He gave Tenten a push forward, making her stumble as she walked down the narrow hallway, passing many other jail cells on the way. The people within the cells didn't look like dangerous people who would make criminal offenses, but then again, they were all sleeping.

"Wait here," Beef Man said, holding his arm out to halt Tenten unexpectedly. _Um, hello? _Tenten thought angrily. _I'm a girl? You can't just be flinging out arm out at her chest…_

"I've got the eighth one right here," Beef Man now said into an intercom as he held a button. He said this as if Tenten were a prize or something. Tenten raided an eyebrow as she noticed this.

"Thank you, Officer Carbin," a now, very deep voice responded through the intercom. Tenten narrowed her eyes. So his name's Carbin, huh? She much preferred Beef Man. "Just leave her there, we'll take care of the rest. Now go tend to your paperwork."

Beef Man's face obviously fell upon hearing this, as he was expecting a bit more praise then 'thank you, go tend to your paperwork.'

"Yes sir," Beef Man said half-heartedly, doing a wimpy salute before turning around to leave.

Tenten smirked. Now she saw what the deal here was. The deep-voiced guy on the intercom was Beef Man's boss.

Then, for about two minutes, after Tenten stopped mentally patting herself on the back for this discovery, she was getting a bit nervous…and bored.

She sighed. _Anytime now would be excellent, Deep Voice._

Something on the ground caught her eye. Anything right then was more amusing then the other side of the door in front of her, so she bent to her knees to examine it.

It was a very small, shining piece of glass…not unlike the one the girls saw earlier in the theater.

For whatever reason, on some impulse, Tenten picked up the piece of glass and brought it loser to her eyes. It was just like it, yep. _Probably just fell off my clothes or something…_she thought. As she thought about what happened earlier, she thought about her friends.

Where was everyone else?

"Miss."

"AGH!" Tenten jumped three feet into the air upon hearing the familiar Deep Voice above her.

"…Are you alright?" The voice now asked skeptically, partly upon finding her kneeling on the ground holding a piece of glass, partly upon her dramatic reaction.

Tenten regained composure and scrambled to her feet, embarrassed as she quickly gripped the piece of glass in her palm, ignoring the pain she was feeling with it poking into her skin.

She looked at the man in front of her. He had dark hair that was thick and green eyes, about late twenties early thirties. It made her wonder how he had such a deep voice. But something else caught her eye- he wasn't wearing any kind of badge or uniform. So…what kind of an authority was he? (AN: Agh, now that I described him that way, Roy Mustang from FMA will keep popping into my head every time I write him…)

"Erm…fine," Tenten answered quickly. _Except for the fact that I'm in jail for a reason I don't know. _

"That's good," he answered with a nod impassively, as if he actually didn't really care whether or not she was ok. "Then I'm going to need you to follow me into this room if you don't mind," he said, gesturing into the dark room behind them, which was now open.

"Well, actually…" Tenten started to say.

"I don't think you knew my meaning just then," the man chuckled in a way that kind of creaped Tenten out. "It was more of a, oh, I don't know, _rhetorical _question?" Tenten bit her lip as he said this. This guy was making it harder and harder for her to trust him…deep voice shmeep voice, this guy was a _creep._

"Fine?" Tenten said as if it were a quiz.

"Good," he said with a half friendly, half incredibly weird smirk. "Now follow."

Tenten, after the previous display of, well, _weirdness_, did not refuse. She followed the man who she then named The Creep.

"Alright," The Creep said as they entered the room. "Looks like we're all here now…we can begin."

Tenten pursed her lips. _Begin what exactly?_

"About time," she heard a familiar voice mutter from beside her. She looked over.

_Oh, yay._

"Neji," Tenten said to her white-eyed enemy, crossing her arms.

"How do," he greeted sarcastically. Tenten looked beside Neji…there was a row of eight chairs, all the guys and her three friends were each seated. There was an empty one at the very end. _I wonder whom that one's for, _she thought sarcastically.

"Have a seat miss…." The Creep took his own seat at the desk across from the lines of chairs. He lifted a paper and read the name. "…Tenten." He looked back up at her and smiled.

Tenten hesitantly walked over and sat down in the chair at the end that was next to Hinata.

"What did we do?" Hinata asked Tenten in such a weak and frightened voice that it made Tenten feel like crying.

"I have no idea," Tenten whispered back. "But I think we're about to find out."

And Tenten wasn't wrong.

The Creep spun around in his chair to face the eight of them. He had a dark look on his face that just _screamed _'I'm going to molest you all.'

Or maybe the whole 'creep' thing was getting the best of Tenten's mind right then. Then The Creep began to speak.

"Are you eight aware of the definition of 'breaking and entering'?" He asked them all, not looked at them, but at the paper in front of him.

"Yes," they all answered in unison, shooting one another weird glances.

"Ah, good. And does the term 'vandalism' mean anything to you?" He asked, heat growing in his voice as his gaze began to rise from his papers.

"Um…" Hinata said lightly. "I'd imagine it's bad?"

"Ah, right! You certainly are a champion!" The Creep said this with fake enthusiasm, demeaning Hinata's already unconfident posture. "Well," he went on. "Seeing as you seem to be such smart young adults, I'm guessing you are no strangers to the words 'legal offense'?"

All eight went silent. They couldn't even look at each other. None of them could recall ever committing any kind of 'legal offense' during the time they were at the theater…sure there were some nasty exchanges…and maybe some stuff that could have looked a bit like sexual harassment if seen by a passerby.

But that's beside the point! They had not done anything blatantly illegal. So why was The Creep interrogating them like they had just carried out an OJ murder?

"Come on kids, don't give me those bewildered looks," The Creep said, leaning in on them as if they were friends. "Just give it up already! After all, you'll be in less trouble if you just confess."

_Like hell we'll be in less trouble, _Sasuke scoffed mentally. _Typical police line._

"Erm," Sakura spoke up, for lack of others willing to. "What exactly is it we're supposed to be confessing to?"

There was a pause as The Creep just looked at the eight of them, not blinking. Then, only a few odd seconds later, he burst into laughter.

"Ah, you kids!" He said between laughs. Sakura and Ino exchanged a look. "You certainly are a hoot! 'What are we supposed to be confessing to?' Ah…sorry, thank you. I haven't laughed like that in years." He calmed down and his face switched back to serious. "So, are you gonna confess, or are we going to have to electrocute it outta you?"

Right then, Hinata couldn't suppress a frightened gasp as her eyes widened. The Creep just chuckled again at Hinata's reaction as he stood up.

"I'm just kidding darlin'," he said as he patted Hinata's head. She didn't look at him as he did this. She felt like a dog all of a sudden. "Just an old police trick we use on the homicidal ones…but I doubt you're up there yet," he chuckled at his own wise crack.

"Tell you what though," he said, picking up a folder from his desk as he leaned back on it. "I'll humor you kids…let you take a chance to, say, _admire_ your own little handywork."

Shikamaru shifted in his seat. _Our handywork? _

It was then that The Creep slipped something out of the file. It was a photograph…and in it was the front of the theater, completely torn up, the windows broken, and from the looks of the colors on some of the planks that weren't there before, tagged.

Everyone's mouths dropped open, they were speechless. The Creep just sighed as he slipped the photo back in the file. "Still not confessing, eh? Well, I guess we're just gonna have to keep you here overnight until you-"

"We did it," Shikamaru said almost immediately, cutting The Creep off.

Everyone looked at Shikamaru, flabbergast. Why was he turning them in? For something they didn't even do, at that?

Ino looked at him and mouthed the words "what are you doing???" He ignored her though.

"Hm?" The Creep looked up from his file, almost surprised that someone actually admitted it.

"We did it," Shikamaru repeated. "And we're ready to take the punishment waiting for us."

Naruto bit his lip, wanting to scream the truth, but knowing Shikamaru, he probably had some reasoning being his actions. _Or…_Naruto gulped. _At least I hope he does. _

"So you are…" The Creep said, nodding, scribbling something down in the filed before looking up at the eight of them. "I guess the first thing we can have you do now is-"

"Clean up the theater?" Shikamaru offered, almost too quickly. Everyone's faces softened a bit. Now they knew he was definitely up to something. What it was though, they could only guess.

The Creep looked up at Shikamaru oddly for a second before answering, "Right on the dime. We'll drop off some materials with you when you arrive there. Your parents are already called and are aware of the current situation," he said, bumping off his desk and putting more papers into a file. "So you better be thanking me for delaying their disciplines with the cleanup work," he added, shooting a look at them.

"Thank you?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.

"Right," The Creep said with what looked like a roll of his eyes. He sat down in his desk. "You're dismissed," he said with a nod as they all got up and head for the door.

"I've got a man stationed at the front door, he'll be responsible for your means of transportation," he told them before they all got out- which did take up some time, seeing as there were eight of them.

"But," he said more boldly and darkly, sternly enough to make them all turn around right away. "I expect no funny business while you're there. You all are already hobbling on the edge as it is, and I'll be damned if you don't fall off after one more screw up. So watch yourselves."

With this final warning, the teens got the _hell_ out of there.

**I SWEAR eventful stuff comes up next chapter! Thanks for reading guys, you're all truly awesome!**


	5. Muffled Meanings

**I'm so sorry for the hold up. You can all beat me with stupid sticks. (Hands you all stupid sticks.)**

**Now, if you all got a sufficient beating, then you can go on and start reading!**

Chapter 5:

Muffled Meanings

"Guys…" Sakura said quietly as they all walked down the long hall to the front door of the station. "We didn't do any of that."

"Oh, really?" Sasuke asked sarcastically. "Thanks for clearing that up."

"Shut up," muttered Sakura, crossing her arms as she turned her head away from him. "I'm so not in the mood."

"What, like any of us are in the mood to be cleaning up a mess we didn't make?" Sasuke shot back at her. To Shikamaru, who was walking nonchalantly down the hallway with his hands in his pockets, Sasuke said, "Which reminds me by the way, thanks Shikamaru, for turning us over to that guys clutches."

"Chill, Captain Sarcasm," Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head, unfazed.

"Yeah man, what was that about?" Naruto asked Shikamaru, resting his hands on the back of his head, slowing his steps so as to let Shikamaru catch up to him.

Shikamaru kept his hands in his pockets and closed his eyes as he walked (which was somehow possible for him.) "Sure, like you guys would rather sit through an undeserved lecture from your folks then investigate the damage we were framed for."

Everyone shrugged, realizing he was right. Well, when you put it that way, cleaning up the mess didn't seem that bad after all.

"Well, ok, but that won't explain how it happened…" Naruto began, attempting to shoot down one of Shikamaru's ideas for once.

"Idiot," Sakura sighed. "That's _why _we should go."

Naruto turned red and bit his lip as he looked down at the ground. "Oh…" he said half to himself.

As Hinata watched him, she felt a sense of déjà vu. She experienced inadvertent hurt from her friends before, which is why right then, she almost felt a pang of pity for Naruto.

_Almost _being the operative word, of course.

"Over here, kids," they heard a deep voice say. They all looked over to where the voice came from, which was the door they very intelligently nearly passed.

The man was tall, and by the looks of it, ripped as well. Contrary to what some of you are probably thinking, he wasn't the tall bald kind you see with earpieces. He actually looked rather young, about twenty-six, with a full head of thick, brown hair. He also had youthful blue eyes. It almost made the girls wonder why someone like him was a police officer.

Not that the girls were noticing any of these striking qualities. Ahem.

But what also interested them, was the guy next to the man. The guy looked about a year or two older than themselves, maybe eighteen, and had light brown hair, which bore an uncanny resemblance to the cop's, that was pretty long, but did not exceed shoulder length. His dark eyes looked half opened, making him look, dare they say, dangerous. His clothes consisted of fingertipless gloves, baggy black cargo pants with un-worn suspenders hanging down by the sides, and a dark gray worn out tee shirt. It looked rather thrown together. He had his arms crossed tightly over his chest in an "I don't care" way.

Basically, the guy was the total vision of a rebel. The girls found him a bit intriguing, but more so frightening. They could only imagine how much scarier he'd be if he actually looked any of them in the eye, which didn't look really possible right then. His eyes hadn't shifted since they walked over, as if he hadn't noticed.

"Hello, I'll be driving you to your destination," the officer said with a slight bow of his neck. "The Mantwell Theater, if I'm not mistaken?"

"That's right," Neji answered, glaring at the rebel boy. For some reason, there was some air the boy gave off that Neji detested already.

"Good, follow me out to the car," the perky young cop instructed, opening the door for them. "You can call me Officer Ross, by the way. Or just Ross if you like," he said with a smile.

The girls beamed back, and the guys rolled their eyes upon noticing. What is it about being on first name basis with young cops that make girls go so ga-ga?

Maybe that was a stupid question.

As they all walked out, each one of them ended up passing the rebel boy. Even as they did, his facial expression did not change an ounce from what it was before.

_Strange, _Tenten thought as she passed him. _He hasn't blinked once. _

As they were all in the parking lot, walking to what looked more like a cop van since there were too many of them for a simple car.

Ross slid open the doors for them and they all piled in. Luckily, it had four seats in the back, four in the middle, and two up front, so there were enough for the guys and girls to stay a fair distance away from each other, so as not to start a fight.

They all looked at the shotgun to see the rebel boy sitting in it. They were all shocked…none of them even knew that he had followed. What was he even there for?

As Ross pulled the car out of the lot and into the street, he noticed all their glances at the rebel boy.

"Ah," he said, looking at them. "You're probably wondering who this is. This is-"

"I can speak for myself, thank you," the guy suddenly interrupted with a quietly husky voice, almost startling the girls at his unexpected speech. Noticing this, he added, "And yes, I do possess the ability to speak."

"You'll have to excuse him," Officer Ross sighed, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. "He's just a bit off put since he's been stuck with doing charity work to compensate for his actions. That's a good upside to you guys messing the theater up- we have somewhere to dump him."

The teens were surprised at his sudden change in manner as he talked about the kid, and were almost taken aback by his rudeness regarding him. However, what the rebel boy said next explained everything.

"Dump me wherever you want, It's not going to change anything _brother dear_," he spat back at Ross.

_BROTHER? _Everyone thought this, looking back and forth between the two. Now that they thought about it, they _did _share some resemblance other than their hair. Their cheekbones were both high, and they each had a similar strong build.

"We'll see about that," The older brother muttered in response, as he pulled in the driveway, which led to the theater. To the rest of the car, he announced, "Well, here we are. Supplies are in the back of the truck. Should be sufficient enough."

"Thanks…" Sakura said as they all piled out of the car. "…Ross," she added with a flirtatious smile, which he returned with a friendly one.

Sasuke saw this, and grumbled.

"I give the guy two weeks to show up on the 'sexual predators' program," Sasuke said under his breath, but loud enough for Sakura to hear as they rounded the back of the van to the trunk.

"What's that?" Sakura said carelessly, as if she hadn't heard him. "Because it's sounding to me like you're jealous of him."

Sasuke made a choking noise, letting Sakura know that the bear thought made him ill of breath…for the worse.

"Put down the romance novels," Sasuke said, taking a bucket and toolbox out of the trunk. "And keep on dreaming."

Sakura watched him go as she extracted a broom and garbage bag from the trunk. _I swear, _she thought, gripping the handle of the broom. _He just makes me so…AGH! _The only thing fighting her urge to rip her hair out was the fact that Ross would have found such an action un-ladylike.

On the other side of the truck, Tenten was heaving out a very large trashcan, most likely there to dispose of the debris they were going to have to clean up. _Yeah, like this thing's gonna stash all that,_ she thought, looking at the sprawled woodchucks around the theater.

"Damn!" She said a bit more loudly than she intended, as the trashcan came down on her foot while she was busy analyzing the debris around the theater. She bent down and held her foot. It was definitely going to bruise up eventually, she could tell. Tenten, being Tenten, knew her injuries.

"Such a lovely display of grace and feminism," the sarcastic and unquestionable voice of Neji said from above her, picking the trashcan up reluctantly.

"Funny, I could say the same thing to you," Tenten quipped, standing up quickly. "As I recall telling you already, that hair of yours is _really_ looking healthier with every hour…" She tilted her head curiously, looking at his hair.

Neji sighed. "Perhaps I should leave you to think up some newer insults? The hair one is getting rather old," he enlightened her, looking at her over his shoulder as he reached to take something out of the truck.

Tenten crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Is it really getting to you _that_ much?" She was tormenting him, and he could tell. Then, she just yawned and turned away. "I guess Lee was right after all…"

Just as Tenten predicted, Neji cleared his throat and interjected. "Lee?" He asked skeptically. "What in the hell does _Lee_ have to say?"

"Aw, nothing really…" Tenten said, stretching just to make it all the more tense for Neji. She relished the impatient and annoyed look growing on his face. "It's all just, you know, old stuff," she said, putting emphasis on the word 'old.'

With the one triumph she could get away with, Tenten walked away before Neji could interrupt her again. He watched her walk off with a confused look on his face. _Lee, huh? You two would make quite the couple…weird hairstyles, and even weirder senses of humor. _Neji thought some more. _Actually…_He then snapped out of it, as he was about to reassess his opinion of the two as a couple. _Yep. Quite the couple._ Confused with his own thoughts, he walked away from the trunk, empty garbage bag slung over his shoulder.

Ino rounded the back of the truck. "Ugh," she said to herself in disgust, looking back at the door from which she came out of. "I swear, whatever that gooey stuff keeping the seat belt from unbuckling was, it certainly made me- umph!" Ino stumbled back upon colliding with somebody.

"I see you're clumsiness hasn't changed," she heard the lazy voice of Shikamaru say as she opened her eyes to see it was he who she had ran into.

"I see you haven't hit a growth spurt," Ino retorted with a smug smile, reaching into the trunk to extract Windex and washcloths. Ino knew within herself that this was a horrible lie…Shikamaru had in fact hit is growth spurt. All too well, at that. But it was the first thing that popped into her head right then, and she wasn't about to take it back since Shikamaru wasn't denying it. Well, yet that is.

"Whatever you say," Shikamaru replied as if he didn't care, unloading the second trashcan. It was heavier than he thought, so he took a few steps back to control the sudden weight. However, as he stepped back, he accidentally stomped something.

He turned around to see the rebel boy there. Shikamaru's eyes shot up absurdly. _What's with this guy? How in the hell does he keep managing to move from one place to another with us noticing?_

Ino smiled faintly at the rebel guy. Now that she got a good look at him, he did have nice looking features.

However, he simply looked down at his foot and gave a small grumble.

"Hey, sorry man," Shikamaru apologized, breaking the awkward silence.

"Good going, Shikamaru," scolded Ino, rolling her eyes, rat-tailing him with a washcloth.

"Hey," Shikamaru said, moving his hand fast enough to grab the washcloth. "Remember last time you tried that?" He began twisting the washcloth.

Ino began to squeak as the washcloth twisted, bringing her wrist with it. Finally, she wrenched her hand away. "Fine…" she gave in silently, stroking her hand.

The rebel boy, upon watching this, raised an eyebrow. "Is this, what, a love hate relationship or something?" He spoke finally, eyeing the two.

Ino couldn't help but blush as her arms snapped to her sides upon hearing this. _Love hate relationship? As if! _

Shikamaru just bit his lip and scratched his head. "Aaah…" he stuttered in response. The rebel boy's eyebrows just went up more at this.

"No," Ino answered for the two of them quickly. "It's pretty much just the 'hate' part." She smiled nervously.

Shikamaru looked at her then back at the rebel guy.

"Yep," he finally answered, although it looked more like he was answering to the ground than to the rebel. "We're actually quite the mortal enemies."

The rebel guy just looked at the two back and forth, and then sighed. "I see," he said slowly. "Well, whatever." With that, he walked away.

After the guy was long gone, Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Ino, as he saw a window of opportunity to tease her. "So," he said to her, smirking. "How's the view of his rear, Ino?"

"It's wonderf-" Ino started to say, as she wasn't paying attention. Realizing what she was saying, and to whom, she widened her eyes and snapped her mouth shut. "Hey!" she sputtered.

Shikamaru put his hands up innocently as he walked away from her. "You said it, not me," he said casually, sauntering away like he was the Mr. Thang.

Ino twisted the washcloth in her hands over and over and over. _If you didn't walk away so fast, this could have been your neck. _

"Hey Ino, you mind moving?" Naruto asked rudely, pushing her by to get to the trunk. "Not all of us are slim enough to fit through the narrow slit between you and the trunk."

"Leave Ino alone, Naruto," Hinata warned in Ino's defense. Ino smiled gratefully to her as she walked away, but she was still a bit embarrassed by Naruto's remark. Not hurt. No, definitely not hurt…just embarrassed. Very, very embarrassed.

"Naruto…why?" Hinata barely voiced, taking a mop out of the trunk.

"Why _what?_" Naruto replied insensitively, slinging an empty bucket over his shoulder.

"Why do you…always have to say stuff like that?" She asked him, anger burning in her eyes. Eh, that was more like an overstatement. It was mostly just very intense annoyance, since Hinata's eyes have never flamed up with anger at any point in time.

Naruto just shrugged. "Easy question, I think," he said simply. "Like, why do you guys always say bad stuff to us?" He shot back at her.

Hinata put aside the fact that he never really answered the question, and bit her lip. "Because," she replied softly, turning her back to him, starting to walk away.

"Hello?" Naruto questioned at Hinata's lack of a sufficient answer as he put his hand on Hinata's shoulder, tugging her back. This sudden action startled her, and she let out a squeak. "Hey, easy," he said, holding up his hands defensively. "Now, answer my question. If our remarks annoy you so much, why do you do the same to us?"

Hinata stopped walking, but didn't turn to face him. She took a deep breath in and out. "Because," she began. "That's the way it is…and has always been."

"And what the hell's that supposed to mean?" Naruto snapped. "Have you been talking to Kiba or something, because that guy _invented_ the word 'incoherent.'"

Hinata was partly surprised that Naruto knew what 'coherent' meant, and partly glad that he had given her a chance to get back at him for all the times he has taken advantage of her lack-of-defense. And he would see how in a matter of seconds. She thought really hard before she said what she was going to say next, _what would Sakura and Ino do, what would Sakura and Ino do…_

"Oh," Hinata said softly, sighing. "Kiba…we _have_ been talking a real lot lately. He's really…sweet." Hinata managed to summon the small tint of blush that had for so many years come up involuntarily at the exact wrong moments. She was glad she could now use it to her advantage.

"Huh? You and Kiba?" Naruto looked appalled. "When did…?"

"Oh, it's…" Hinata looked away and smiled lightly to add to the effect. "None of your concern. Bye, now!"

Hinata saw this as her chance to walk away while she was still ahead. And this time, Naruto was far too flabbergast to stop her.

**Again, I'm sorry it took so long. I hope you liked the chapter since I put some love/hate chemistry in. Next chapter will hit a turning point! R and R please, you guys are so great, thanks for sticking with this!**


	6. What Do You Know?

**Hey guys! Unfortunately, since I'm leaving for a week, I won't be able to update, so I wrote this chapter really quick to make up for the time I would have lost! I hope it links a few bridges to the upcoming plotline. Thanks for reading guys!!!**

**By the way…you may all keep your stupid sticks. But please stop beating me with them! I will get welts!**

Chapter 6:

What do you know?

The teens began to clean up the theater.

"Hey Tenten, garbage can," Ino said, pointing to the trashcan as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. She was holding a dusty old fur ball from god knows what in her hand, a good distance away from her.

"Ew," Tenten agreed, bringing the trashcan over to her. Ino dropped it and the two looked down at it and shuddered.

"Well," Naruto said sarcastically, picking up woodchips. "This is great fun."

"I'll say," came the voice of the rebel boy. This surprised everyone, as he hadn't spoken since he talking to Ino and Shikamaru. They all looked at him. He was lounging on a chair, his feet up on a piece of wood, resting his head on his hands as he chewed on a toothpick.

"Well, how about you get up off your ass and actually lend a hand? Who the hell are you anyway?" Sasuke threw at him snidely, throwing the rebel a hard look.

The rebel boy shot Sasuke a look that was thrice tough. "First off, names West."

"Nice name," Naruto snickered half to himself, but unfortunately, half to the ears of everyone else.

"Nice whiskers," West shot back, as if proving that no matter what, he was bullet proof to insults. To Sasuke, he said, "And you, how about you shut your mouth, pretty boy, before I staple it shut. And I do have a staple gun on me, by the way," he added, narrowing his eyes.

"Your lies are hollow," Neji contributed, wiping off some of the color from a plank of wood. "In case you forgot, we were just at a jail. And judging by what I know of your reputation, something tells me they've checked you for these things. Staple guns aren't things you can slip in your pocket easily."

Checked! Neji had him there. Or did he?

"Wanna bet?" West tested, raising his eyebrows. In a second, he whipped out a staple gun. "Because I wouldn't take that bet."

All their eyes widened instantly.

"So, now you're a klepto too, huh?" Shikamaru asked, rolling his eyes as if he could care less, when in reality, he had little doubt that West would consider using the staple gun against them.

"Yeah, klepto!" Naruto backed him up, wanting to contribute, still particularly fragile over the whiskers comment. "Erm…" he scratched his head. "What's a klepto?"

Sakura sighed as she muttered, "Someone addicted to stealing things without economic need."

"Oh, of course, must've slipped my mind," Naruto said sarcastically at his own ignorance as he went back to picking up torn up wood.

Heh, for a second, he almost forgot that the insane rebel named West next to them had a staple gun aimed at them.

"Well, in case any of you here are blind, there are staple guns everywhere in the supply box my darling brother left for us," West informed them, gesturing to the truck. "Doesn't it kinda make you wish you were a tad bit less bold, ponytail boy?" He pointed the gun at Shikamaru, who gulped. _He's bluffing…there's no way he's really going to use that thing. _It wasn't until the next thought hit Shikamaru that he really became wary. _Then again…this guy was just in jail._

"Hey, hey," Ino said, nervously, trying to calm things down. Normally, Ino had to be the one calmed down, but now that things were getting homicidal, she felt she had better step in.

And the fact that she felt a small attraction to West had nothing to do with it.

"Come on," she said. "We have more important issues on our hands." She gestured to the theater.

West turned to her sharply and looked her up and down. "Out of the way, blondie. This doesn't concern you."

"Um, excuse me?" Ino said, taken aback. She didn't move from where she stood.

"Ah," West sighed, rolling his eyes. "The things you do for the one's you love, eh?"

Shikamaru and Ino blushed insanely.

"We already told you, we, erm…" Shikamaru looked at Ino who was looking at the ground. "Hate each other," he murmured. "But just…lay off her alright?"

At this, Ino looked up at Shikamaru, surprised, as did everyone else. Even so, the person the most confused by this contradiction was Shikamaru himself.

West just laughed at him lightly after the pause. "Yeah, _dude," _he said sarcastically. "Sounds like you really hate her."

"Why do you feel the need to attack everyone? What did we do?" Sakura protested, throwing her hands in the air. She was getting irritated with the constant bickering.

West turned to her and shook his head.

"I won't even bother with you," he laughed, hopping off the chair, stretching his arms carelessly.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Sakura asked in the same manner Ino said her 'um excuse me?'

"Um, I'm pretty sure it means I'm not going to bother with you," he said, mocking her. Sakura gritted her teeth. If there was one thing she hated, it was being mocked.

"You better lay off her man," Sasuke warned West as more of a careless remark than advice. "She can get ugly when she's angry."

Any other day, Sakura would have given him a good slap upside the head for that one, but right then, she clung to his every word. Even if she hated admitting it, even to herself.

West turned to Sasuke, a messed up look on his face. "Okay," he said, holding his hands up. "What's with you people? You claim to hate each other every fifteen seconds, shouting the crappiest insults at one another, and believe me, they _are_ crappy," he added. "And then you defend one another till death do you part. Ya know, if I didn't have my feet planted on the ground firmly enough to not care, I'd say you all are hiding a little something from each other." He looked at them all suspiciously.

"And on top of all that," He continued. "You commit the worlds cruddiest so-called 'crime.' I mean, tagging a run down theater? And in broad daylight? Come on, I've seen elephants more stealthy than that." He scoffed something that sounded like 'amateurs'.

Now that West was wound up, clearly he was on a roll.

"You want to know what you people are? I'll tell you what you are. You're all just a bunch of blind idiots spinning in circles, _thinking_ that you know what you're talking about, when in reality, you haven't got a frickin _clue."_ After this speech, he simply blew back some wayward maverick hair that had fallen in front of his eyes like he said these things every day. No one was quite sure what the last few sentences had to do with anything they had done, but hey, let the rebel guy be a rebel guy.

"And what make you think you know anything about us," Neji said finally, narrowing his milky whites at West grudgingly.

West glared back at him. "I didn't need to. Another thing I forgot- you are all just too easy to figure out."

Now, it was Tenten's turn to snap. She stood up from where she was sitting and got all up in West's face.

"He's right!" She practically screamed in his ear. She never thought she'd ever admit that Neji Hyuuga was right, but right then, she just had to.

Neji even looked up at her with a 'did she just say I was right?' look on his face. She saw it, and their eyes locked for what felt like a split second. However, when they second was over with, Tenten began hammering in on West again. "You don't know a damn thing about us!"

She gestured at Sakura. "Sakura's head of the honors society and is already requested for Ivy Leagues. Did you know that, hm?"

Tenten threw her arm over at Hinata. "Hinata has won the school poetry and art contests every year since we were in first grade, _and_ is first chair in three different instruments. Lemme guess, you didn't know that either, did you?"

Tenten then swung her arm out at Ino. "Oh! Yeah! And did you know that Ino has been student council president every year since sixth grade, along with an early scholarship to a designer college? I highly doubt it." Tenten then pointed at her own self. "And me? I've been captain of every sports team I've played on, and each one as been scouted!" She took a step forward at West. "So what does that tell you?" She asked him gravely. "You don't know a _thing._"

West looked down at her, clearly surprised that someone had got up the courage to actually stick it to him.

The boys now all looked at the girls. They had not been aware of any of this until just now. Perhaps…naw. They weren't about to stoop that far. _Or so they hoped._

"Didn't your parents ever teach you manners?" Tenten hissed at him simply, before turning around and walking back to her friends who were all mouthing things like 'good job!' and 'way to show how it's done!'

It wasn't until everyone noticed West's stone cold glare that things went from "calmed down" and back to "incredibly tense."

They all looked at his deathly gaze, unsure of whether or not he was going to speak.

Tenten gulped. _Uh oh…maybe I came on a bit strong. _She was starting to regret all the things she just fumed out at him.

Then, to everyone's surprise, West spoke.

"They'd probably still be trying," he said darkly. "If they were alive that is."

Tenten's mouth hung open as her face flushed red with embarrassment. I mean, sure the guy was an ass, (AN: Pardon my French) but still…

"Oh my!"

Everyone jumped at the sudden familiar voice. They spun around, thankful to find some way to avert the awkwardness brought on by West's unexpected confession.

"Kurenai," breathed Ino, hand on her chest. "It's just you."

Kurenai was in fact the source of the voice. She had a stack of packets in her arms, and she was tapping her foot oddly at the lot.

"Well, who were you expecting?" She chuckled rhetorically, before slipping a paper out of the mountainous stack in her arms. "Looks like the theater suffered some heavy blows, eh?" She asked this without looked up.

Now, all attentions were on Kurenai.

"Wait," Hinata said softly. "Kurenai…you don't think we did it?"

Kurenai looked at her with an "uh, doyoy" look on her face.

"I've known you eight for as long as I can remember," she said, smirking at them. "I'll be dead before you guys ever actually destroy a building."

Everyone sighed now in relief. Thank god someone believed them.

"So," Shikamaru said, scratching his head. "Why'd you come? Well, besides to check out the damage of your theater and all…" he added, kicking a piece of debris.

"Well," Kurenai said happily, as if everything she's worked for in the past two months wasn't just destroyed. "I have the cast list ready like I said!"

Everyone looked at her oddly as she did this giddily. You would think the destruction of her theater would take a toll on efficiency, but it looks like it hasn't slowed her down a bit.

"Here," she handed the cast list to Naruto, who skimmed it.

"Hey…" Naruto said, a slight smile growing on his face. "We all got the parts we auditioned for!" He beamed up at Kurenai.

"HAH!"

The guys looked oddly over at Sakura, who had flung a finger out at them all.

"So you DID audition!" She couldn't help but point this out.

Sasuke simply shrugged. "Yeah?" He said as if it were no big deal. "Something to do between now and soccer. Problem?"

Sakura did not expect him to readily have a logical answer. She slowly let her finger drop. "Oh…well…ah." She said, biting her lip. "Nevermind."

Everyone laughed a bit at the bicker, then turned back to Kurenai.

"Here are your scripts," she said, handing them to all of them. "I suggest you all look it over tonight. Feel free to make character analysis." They each took one of the fat scripts.

"Sheesh…" Naruto whistled, flipping through the huge packet of lines. "This things not kidding around."

Kurenai smiled faintly. "Yeah," she said. "I thought you guys could handle it."

"Um…" Neji said. "I hate to break up the happy joy time, but…" he hesitated to bring up what he brought up next. "The theater is kind of trashed."

They all looked over at the theater. Ah…hehe. He had a point. This didn't exactly strike anyone until just now.

"Well…" Kurenai framed it with her fingers, a common director action. "Only the outside. The inside should still be intact."

Sakura bit her lip and looked at Ino. She knew what she was thinking. Even if it was intact, no one really wanted to perform in what looked like a torn down shed. "Well, but-"

"It'll be fine," Kurenai assured her. She then turned her back to them. "I have to go now, sorry I couldn't stay and erm…" she tapped a piece of debris with her foot. "…help out. But I have some work to tend to back at home concerning what I'm going to do bout reparations. But I'll see you tomorrow, okay? Okay."

And with that, Kurenai zoomed away. Everyone blinked, looking at the scripts in their hands. It was certainly going to be a long night.

"That woman," West finally said from behind them. "Has too much time on her hands."

Everyone hated to admit it, but for the first time, he had a point there.

**Hey, sorry it was really rushed at the end, but it's midnight and I've been pestered to get to bed since I have to wake up insanely early tomorrow to leave. Please excuse any grammatical errors you have detected, which I'm sure there are. Sorry I won't be able to update for a week! But thanks for reading this guys!**


	7. Late Night Phone Calls

**Hey guys, thanks for being patient with me! I must advise you guys, you may be tempted to do what many people including myself do, which is skimming over some parts to get to the good stuff.**

**DO NOT DO THAT WITH THIS CHAPTER, FOR EVERYTHING WITHIN IS GOING TO BE SIGNIFICANT LATER.**

**Ahem. Thanks!**

Chapter 7:

Late Night Phone Calls

Neji dropped the over sized script in front of himself on his desk. He then looked at his watch, which read three AM.

"Two and a half hours," he sighed to himself in exhaustion, looking down at the stack. "Just to read. I can only imagine the length of the performance."

Neji's eyes had the ability to gather information and store it extremely fast, so if this was a lot for Neji's system, he could only imagine how everyone else was fairing.

Neji was unsure of what to do next. His eyes were calling for sleep, but his mind was calling for the object he and the guys had stumbled upon earlier.

He thought back to recall the moment.

_"What are we trying to accomplish exactly, Uchiha?" Neji asked irritably of Sasuke, pushing overhanging twigs away from his face as they all stomped through the woods._

"_Like I said," Sasuke replied. "I just want to check out the competition."_

"_And, why exactly?" Shikamaru yawned as he traipsed after. _

"_Because," Sasuke answered. "If there are just nerds trying out for the same parts, then I'll know I'm not wasting my time doing this stupid play thing instead of being overpaid for babysitting Konohamaru between now and soccer. But if it actually looks like a challenge, though I hardly think that will be the case, then we'll be able to withdraw our auditions before Kurenai posts the list."_

"_Dude," Naruto said, shaking his head. "Your logic is more screwed up than a loose bolt." _

"_Shut up dobe, you're just too slow to follow," Sasuke snapped at him. _(AN: I'm not Japanese, so I know I shouldn't use the term 'dobe' in my fics, but after much fanfic reading, it's the only name I can see Sasuke calling him.)

_Naruto rolled his eyes. Then, his eyes stopped as they locked at something flying through the air. "Heads up!" he called._

_Too late, however, as everyone's heads began to lift, the projectile had hit Shikamaru square in the cheek._

"_Shit!" He couldn't help but exclaim, squinting his eyes at the sudden surge of pain he felt through his face. He reached up to the gash left on his face from what hit him. He looked at his fingers after touching it slightly. They were shiny with blood._

"_What, was that a knife or something?" Sasuke mused as they all looked around._

"_Maybe an assault…" Neji suggested, looking around in alarm._

_Naruto sighed. "Or," he offered. "It could have been this."_

_Naruto knelt to the ground and picked up a shiny piece of glass. He held it up so they all could see. It had sharp edges as if it were broken off from something else, so it was no wonder it had cut Shikamaru._

"_Let me see that," Shikamaru said, swiping it from Naruto, looking at the object that cut his own face. "This is one odd piece of glass. Must say, haven't seen anything like it before."_

_Everyone looked over his shoulder at it. The glass contained multi-colored flecks of an unnatural nature, which, being a practicality nerd, baffled Shikamaru._

"_Maybe it's plexi-glass," Naruto suggested. "Like from some funkedelic window or something." _

"_Doubt it," Neji shook his head as he took the glass from Shikamaru. "It's too cold and dense. That's glass all right. Only question is, where'd it come from?"_

_This conversation went on while the guys started walking again. _

"_Okay," Shikamaru said after a handful of false ideas as to what the glass's origin was had been said. "I know this thing couldn't have come from nowhere. How could it have-"_

_Shikamaru couldn't finish his sentence, because right then, he felt someone take heavy impact on him as if flying from the sky._

_He heard the rest of the guys fall to the ground too as something…or someone fell on them._

_The guys all looked up. And sure enough, their worst enemies were laying on top of them."_

When Neji was done thinking about the evening before, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of guilt. He was sure the piece of the glass the girls were talking about had something to do with the one they found. But the opportunity to ridicule their sanity was just way too tempting to throw it all out the window by admitting they had experienced nearly the same thing.

This memory made Neji curious enough to slip his hand into the pockets of the pants from that day he was still wearing. He wanted to take just one more look at that piece of glass, as he had forgotten he had put it in his pocket.

But no matter how deep he went, he couldn't find the piece of glass. He ruffled through his sweatshirt pockets. Nothing.

_What? _He thought. _I know I had it before we went to jail. Could I have…?_

Neji's eyes shot open from their analytical state when the phone suddenly began to ring. Neji gave another sigh, as he was ready to finally sleep after reading the script all night.

"Now who the hell…" he grumbled, picking up the phone.

"Hyuuga." Came the voice on the other line.

Neji gritted his teeth in annoyance at the fact that if someone were to disturb him so late at night, it could have at least been someone he didn't already see everyday.

"Nigh, Uchiha," Neji grudgingly greeted his companion whom he was ready to destroy. "Finished skimming I presume?"

"Hm," Sasuke assured. He sounded tired as well.

"Well," Neji said, rolling his eyes regardless of the fact that the Uchiha boy couldn't see it. "That's nice to know…I guess. Thank you for disturbing me. Again, nigh."

Neji was ready to hang up the phone when Sasuke interjected on the other line.

"Will you wait for a second?" Sasuke asked him heatedly, angry that Neji wasn't giving him the light of day to get to his point.

Neji bit his lip, even more annoyed now. _I just want to go to damn sleep, _he thought, looking at his bed longingly. "What is it?"

"Don't even tell me you didn't notice," Sasuke asked him, sounding surprised that Neji seemed to not have picked up on whatever it was he was referring to.

"Notice what…" Neji mused, racking his brain for the information he stored while reading the script. He got home very late that night, so he used his method where he simply skimmed over the words, and analyzes the content later after he had it stored in his mind.

"Hold on," Sasuke interrupted his thoughts. "Someone's on the other line." A pause, and Sasuke then grumbled after reading the caller ID. "Naruto. Should I screen it?"

"What's the use, I'm already off to a bad start," Neji replied, still searching his mind.

"Alright, your choice…"

A beep came through as Naruto got on the three-way call.

"Now who in the hell on Neptune woulda thought????"

Neji and Sasuke both sighed. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Dude, the coincidence is like so…coincidental!" Naruto rambled off, clearly flabbergasted at something.

Neji searched his memory more rigorously now. _Perhaps I should backtrack…_he thought back to how the play began. Then, it hit him.

_Impossible._

Neji then detected what was making Sasuke and Naruto so choked up.

"Hey Nej, judging by the weird silence, I'm taking the guess that you only just realized?" Naruto tormented Neji with the fact that he picked up on it faster.

Neji muttered, "Naruto, I swear…" He began to rub one of his eyes with his thumb, and the other with his index finger. So much for his ingenuine ability to store information.

"I'll just take that as a 'no'," Naruto chirped happily. Neji and Sasuke could just see him prancing around gleefully.

Neji rolled his eyes now and sat back in his chair. "Make my day and tell me you didn't finish the whole thing already?"

"Erm, well, I didn't," Naruto confessed. "I read the first scene. But _that's _when I decided to call you guys."

Neji sighed in relief in his mind. It would truly be the apocalypse if Naruto could have read the whole thing at equal, if not faster pace than himself.

"Oh!" Naruto said after a little while. "Shikamaru's on the other line. I'll let him in."

"This is just turning into the perfect little community isn't it," Sasuke said in irritation as Naruto beeped Shikamaru in.

"Looks like," Neji replied with equal annoyance. If the two ever agreed on anything, it was what comes off annoying.

"Having a good night, all?" Shikamaru greeted sarcastically as he came onto the now four-way line. "I'm not. Barely slept all night, haven't eaten anything, cleaning up crap…then Naruto calls me."

"I thought you called Naruto?" Sasuke asked. Naruto fell silent.

"Oh, did he tell you that?" Shikamaru asked. "Well, let's make some logical eliminations, shall we? One, why would I call Naruto? Two, why would I wake up in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping? And three, why would I frickin do BOTH at the same time???"

Sasuke and Neji thought on this. He was definitely right when he put it that way.

"Ok, alright!" Naruto admitted finally. "I called him on my cell and told him to come on the line. I was just thinking maybe he should be let in on all this." A pause. "Sue me."

"Hold on," Shikamaru said in a yawn. "What exactly is _all this_?"

"Ok, Shikamaru, we know your tired and all, but please don't pretend you don't know," Sasuke said accusingly over the line.

"Uchiha, I'm a genius," Shikamaru said flatly to Sasuke. Everyone knew he was getting serious now since he was using last names. And yes, that is an odd thing for Shikamaru. "Don't you think if I stumbled upon anything mind-boggling recently I would have the brain cells to remember it?"

Sometimes, Neji and Sasuke hated Shikamaru for this quality he always had. To make things that usually slip under the radar seem obvious.

"What's with you?" Naruto asked, irritably. "You've been snapping at us ever since you came on."

Shikamaru ran a hand throw his hair, which was down since he had just been asleep. Or trying, anyway.

"Sorry," he said solidly, though he didn't really sound all that sorry. "It's just been a bad day spent with the wrong people."

"By 'wrong people' you mean the homicidal maniac and the girls, right?" Naruto asked him, skeptical at whether or not Shikamaru was making a jab at them.

"Yeah, I guess," Shikamaru replied. "Though I must admit, Ino wasn't _as_ annoying as she usually is." The pause that followed let Shikamaru know that the other guys were probably staring open-mouthed at the phone. "She's still annoying," he said quickly. "Just today during the whole cleanup thing, she was a bit less focused on insulting my hair, my voice, or whatever she can pick up on."

"Hehe, probably because she was too busy checking out the homicidal maniac," Naruto laughed to himself. "No surprise," he said simply. "Screw the whole 'opposites attract' deal. As far as I can see, freaks attract freaks."

Something about what Naruto said peeved Shikamaru. He wasn't sure whether it was the 'freaks attract freaks' part or the fact that Ino's attraction to West was apparently 'no surprise'. Whatever the reason was, he found Naruto's words hard to swallow.

"Like hell," he snorted, trying to brush the baffled feeling off his shoulder. "While I don't disagree with the fact that Ino's messed in the head, I think she has a bit more sense than to throw herself at a guy who threatened to shoot her with a staple gun."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Sasuke muttered in objection. "Girls are pretty much oblivious to guys' personas as soon as they decide they're attracted to them." Sasuke's mind teetered off into what happened earlier with Sakura.

"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Sakura hitting on that Ross guy, would you?" Neji taunted Sasuke.

At this, Sasuke shifted in his chair. "Well, she did seem to have a fun time paying mind to his chest rather than what he was saying when he was telling her where to start cleaning up." His eye twitched at the memory.

He looked down at his own chest, which was bare since he didn't sleep in a shirt. _His pecks aren't all _that_ impressive…_he thought to himself regarding Ross. _I mean, come on, I go to the gym every other frickin day! What can she possibly…WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING? _

Embarrassed with himself, Sasuke looked away from himself and tried to forget about the big "J" word that had almost popped into his mind.

"Well, I have to disagree with you Uchiha," Neji countered, not noticing Sasuke's few second absence "If Tenten is taking sudden interest in Lee, I highly doubt physical attraction is a main factor."

"LEE?" Naruto couldn't help but blurt in a fit of laughter. "Oh god…Lee! And Tenten? I'm so right guys, freaks DO attract freaks!"

Neji's pale face went hot for whatever reason. Although Naruto's immaturity in contrast to the rest of theirs was abysmal, he couldn't help but see where he was getting his laughter.

"Jeez," Sasuke whistled long. "I wasn't even sure if that guy was _straight. _Looks like there really _is_ a surprise waiting around every corner of life."

"Well, I've always known he was straight," Neji nodded. "Back on the team he used to make moves on Tenten almost regularly. But god," he said, gripping his pencil. "Who would have thought she'd make them _back." _

"Lee's bulked up a bit," Shikamaru informed them. "Girls always have some thing for ripped guys. Back on my team, Ino left one of her stupid romance novels open on the ground while she went to refill her water bottle, and it just stared up at me. The first line I read was 'as long as he's got a muscular body beyond belief, the face no longer matters.'"

"If that's the case," Neji thought, still gripping the pencil. "Lee would have to be pretty damn muscular."

"Like I said," Sasuke cut in. "There is a surprise waiting for you around every corner of life."

"Can you all just shut up about it now?" Neji finally snapped. The pencil in his hand, equally to his temper, finally snapped as well. He didn't care that pieces of splinters were ready to penetrate his skin.

"Sheesh," Naruto breathed defensively. "Looks like you're _all_ snappy tonight. Why do you care so much anyway?"

"Trust me, I _don't_," Neji assured them, dropping the broken pencil, unsure himself at why he reacted the way he did. "But what about you?" He switched the subject. "What's this I hear about my beloved cousin getting all sweet with the canine creep?"

It was Naruto's turn to get caught off guard now. "What?" he stuttered. "Oh…you mean Hinata and Kiba? Pfft," he blew it off. "I trust you guys don't need me to repeat my policy. As far as my vision goes, those two deserve each other."

Naruto at that moment was glad they were only talking over the phone. Because if they were talking face to face, the other guys would have seen that his facial expression wasn't going along at all with what he was saying. And Naruto couldn't work out why.

"No doubt," Shikamaru agreed. "I saw those two talking at Ichiraku- Kiba eating like a pig, no less. And Hinata was just laughing like it was the funniest thing on earth."

At this, Naruto hitched up an eyebrow. "Really," he asked in more of a statement.

Back when he and Hinata…well, had a better friendship then they did then, they went to Ichiraku a lot, as it was the prime place to hang out on the weekends. Whenever Naruto would slurp up his ramen like the world was ending as we know it, Hinata would pursue to tell him how disgusting and unhealthy it was.

But apparently, not with Kiba. Apparently, with Kiba, she _enjoyed _it.

_Aw flip, _Naruto thought. _Like I care anyway. Take her for all she's worth, hound dog. _

"Yep," Shikamaru assured him, snapping Naruto back into reality. "But it was only once. Who knows what those girls do in their spare time nowadays. I, personally, don't think I even want to know."

"I concur," Neji said.

"Motion seconded," Sasuke said. "But just one question."

"What?" Shikamaru asked him.

"Why are we even talking about them?"

This set all the boys, even Sasuke himself into a stall of confusion. Why _were_ they talking about the girls? Their enemies, at that?

"I have an even bigger question," Naruto broke the silence. "What happened?"

"What do you mean 'what happened'?" Neji asked, coming off a bit more rudely than intended.

"I mean…" Naruto hesitated to continue. "What happened that screwed our friendships with them over? Because…" Naruto narrowed his eyes in struggle. "I really forgot."

The other guys fell silent as they all recalled back a few years ago. They all knew exactly what happen that screwed the friendships over- and screwed over what could have been something more.

None of them wanted to admit it, but it was too painful to talk about it.

"That…" Shikamaru began. "That doesn't matter. It's…beside the point," He sighed, not wanting to pursue what was already a sore subject. None of them really did. "What really matters right now is what on earth you guys are all so weirded out by that you had to wake me up at three fifteen AM and engage me in a nice conversation about the love lives of our enemies."

Everyone sighed as they remembered the point of the phone conversation.

"Alright," Neji compromised calmly. "Did you even read the script?"

Shikamaru gave off a noise that sounded like a scoff and a snort at the same time. "Hell no," he answered. "Why would I waste my time on that when I can just internalize it in the morning when I'm awake enough to do so?"

That explained everything. An awkward silence followed as the other three guys waited for one of the others to tell Shikamaru.

It was surprisingly Naruto who decided to take it under his wing.

Naruto spoke in a rather grave tone that he's never used before. "Read scene one, man. That'll pretty much clear things up."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at Naruto's sudden seriousness. "Erm…okay?" He answered unsurely.

"Well…" Sasuke then said. "You just read it. I, for one, am tired. I'll see you all tomorrow."

Sasuke clicked off the line.

"Ditto," was all Neji said before clicking off the line.

"…Right," Naruto said awkwardly as he was the only one left besides Shikamaru. "I'll just follow suit then."

And with that, Naruto hung up too.

Shikamaru held the phone away from his ear as the empty beeping came over the line. He looked at the receiver as if to expect it to speak to him. _Strange…_he thought. _…Of all of them._

Shikamaru languidly heaved himself up from the edge of his bed and walked over to his desk where he had carelessly thrown the fat script upon coming home.

He sat down and opened the script. What could have been so weird about it that even Neji and Sasuke seemed to feel alarmed?

Shikamaru flipped to the first page. He dove into the script immediately and started to read for real, not skim as he had planned.

Fifteen minutes later, Shikamaru dropped the script in front of him and stared down at it like it carried the Ebola Virus. He had definitely come across what had made the others skeptical.

Shikamaru narrowed his eyes.

_Things are just getting too weird now._

Shikamaru hesitantly reached for the phone, but just as his hand touched it, his door swung open as if someone had been trying to beat it down.

"What the?" Shikamaru spun around to face the person standing in his doorway.

"Thought you little rats could pull another one over on me, eh?"

Shikamaru had no idea what this guy was talking about, but he definately recognized the voice. He squinted his eyes to make out the facial features of who was yelling at him, as his eyes were not fully adjusted.

And in his doorway stood The Creep, as well as three other armed officers.

_This night just keeps getting better_. Needless to say, Shikamaru was quite fluent in sarcasm.

**I know, a lot of you guys are probably ready to claw out my throat since this chapter didn't reveal what the boys were freaked at. But next chapter will…wait and see. Review if you want! Thanks! **


	8. Was It Our Fault?

**Hey guys, I know it's been for freakin EVER, and for that…**

**Yeah, yeah, you can all take those stupid sticks I gave you guys earlier out of your closets and beat me with them. **

**The chapter was getting too long and impossible to finish, so I extracted a third of it that's done and putting it up while I finish the rest. Sorry again guys!**

Chapter 8:

Was It Our Fault?

_Same time as boy's conversation._

"Ino, you done with the hair dryer?" Sakura stuck a clip in her mouth as she used her hands to tie up some of her wet hair.

"Yep, just now," Ino answered, running her fingers through both sides of her now fully dried hair.

They were all at Ino's house for a sleepover. It would have been more comfortable at Hinata's since hers had enough beds to supply them all, but not only was Tenten not exactly psyched to see Neji again after having to work alongside him all day, but Ino's was the closest to the theater and none of them were awake enough to walk all the way back to their houses.

"Do you need to dry it, Sakura?" Yawned Tenten, unrolling one of Ino's spare sleeping bags. "I kinda want to get this done with so we can finally go to sleep."

Sakura sighed, as she reluctantly put the hair dryer she had up and ready to blow her hair with down. "Fine, you're right," she sighed, unplugging the cable. She looked at Ino. "I still don't get how you dry yours so fast. You have a million times the amount of hair I will ever think to have." She walked out of the bathroom and fell onto Ino's futon.

"Years of practice," Ino replied with a toothy smile. Sakura rolled her eyes but smiled.

"But of course."

"Eep!" Tenten suddenly squeaked. Everyone turned to look at her oddly. Squeaking was something Tenten seldom did, and if she ever did, it would be for a video they would be planning to send to _America's Funniest Home Videos._

"What is it?" Hinata asked her, worried as she broke open a package of spare toothbrushes Ino gave them for the night.

"I just shifted my position a bit and suddenly I felt something jab me!" Tenten said irritably searching inside her sleeping back for anything that could have poked her.

"It's probably just because you're wearing jeans to bed," Ino offered, brushing through her hair as she gestured at Tenten's day clothes she was still wearing. "All those buttons and zippers…I offered to let you borrow some pajama pants, but _no_ sir…"

"If I wanted to look like a sparkle adorned powder puff, I would have asked Sakura to give me a makeover," Tenten declined, chuckling.

"Hey!" Sakura defended, throwing a pillow at Tenten. "That was one time! Besides, I thought you looked good!"

Tenten snorted. "Good enough to eat apparently! Remember that kid came up to me and asked me why I was dressed up like cotton candy? Remember, eh?" She threw the pillow back.

Sakura blushed and tittered in embarrassment at the recollection as the pillow hit her knees. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…" she muttered.

"But seriously though," Tenten searched her bag more. "What the hell is in this thing?"

"Don't look at me," said Ino, holding her hands up defensively. "I always make sure my sleeping bags are clean for occasions such as this where no one else can make it home after cleaning up a crap heap and have to lodge at my house till morning where we get to do it all over again," she said all in one sentence.

"Well, apparently…ah HA!" Tenten was about to make a retort when she finally found what had disturbed her.

"What was it?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tenten took out of her pocket what jabbed her. It was the shard of glass she found at the station. (AN: The piece of glass Neji couldn't find in his pocket.) "This. Jeez, how dangerous was that?"

"Lemme see," Sakura said, holding her hands out for the object. Tenten tossed it to her and Sakura examined it

"Oh my god. It's a shard of that freakish piece of glass we found earlier." Sakura rolled off the futon and held it out for everyone. "I didn't know you held on to it?" She looked at Tenten.

"I didn't…Oh!" Tenten's eyes shot open as she recalled where she had gotten the shard. "I found it on the ground at the police station. Kind of weird, huh?"

"That's a given," Ino agreed. "Must have stuck to one of our clothes or something." She shrugged as she turned back to her desk to retrieve her script.

"Yeah…" Tenten thought, squinting into space at nothing in particular. "I guess so." As she thought harder, another thought hit her brain. "Hey guys…"

"Hm?" Hinata asked, finally speaking after flushing the toilet. (AN: too much information there. Just a cleaner way of explaining what she had been doing all that time.)

Tenten hugged her knees to her chest. "Why didn't anyone else feel the earthquake?"

The sent the girls into a pause of silence.

"I…" Hinata shook her head, her hair going side to side as her head hung over the sink. "I don't know."

"Could we have imagined it?" Sakura suggested.

"If we imagined it," Hinata pointed out. "The theater would never have been in such a wreck."

"Good point," Sakura nodded. "Perhaps someone…I dunno, maybe set off explosives on it?" These words sounded twisted in Sakura's head too as she said it, but for an odd reason, it made sense to her.

"Yeah," Tenten couldn't help but say in a sarcastic laugh. "Everyone is out to get a crappy theater. If you ask me, I think the guys probably had something to do with it."

This suggestion seemed to enlighten Ino the most. Her eyes widened as she folded her legs beneath her. "They _were_ conveniently outside the theater after it happened…"

"Yeah," Sakura said, with a newfound interest in Tenten's suggestion. "And it _would _have given them the perfect reason to humiliate us."

"Not like that wasn't already on the agenda," Ino rolled her eyes, as the others laughed.

"Maybe we're looking too far into it, though," said Hinata, biting her nails. "I mean, yes, they may not like us, but I don't think they…" Hinata cut off.

Tenten sat on her calves and eyed Hinata. "Don't think they what?"

"_Hate_ us."

Everyone looked away from Hinata awkwardly. They either picked at the carpet or bit their thumbnails.

"Neji sure makes it seem that way," Tenten mumbled from where she was, looking out the window in frustration, almost as if expecting his face to be there.

"Sasuke too," agreed Sakura, pursing her lips, trying not to think about the confusion of emotions she felt whenever she saw that flock of navy blue hair. She didn't know how to receive them, as there were far too many…both negative and positive.

"Ditto Shikamaru," Ino nodded. She almost felt her eyes water upon remembering Shikamaru's face when Ino would look or side with West. She had to admit…being the source of many words that might have on the inside, hit Shikamaru home, made her feel like a total jerkette. (AN: Made up term, evidently.)

"Yeah," Hinata reasoned. "But maybe its because…I don't know, we fight them back just as hard? Maybe if we just stopped going at each other's throats, we could be…well, you know,"

"_Hinata," _Sakura interrupted sharply, whipping her head in Hinata's direction, silencing her. "You know what happened when we came the slightest bit close to that," she said with a hint of somberness in her tone and eyes. "And you know what they did." She said this quieter. "In fact, that's what even started all this."

Though the girls didn't want to recollect what had happened between them and the guys, the conversation had forced it into their minds. And now it was playing without them being able to push it back out.

_Flashback (AN: Sorry if you hate those, but…)_

"_Sakura!!" Ino leapt at her friend and started joyously twirling her and herself around in excitement. "Today's the day! You ready?"_

"_More like nervous," Sakura replied, sad she could not share in Ino's enthusiasm._

"_I agree with Sakura," Hinata said from behind Sakura, having just arrived at Ichiraku where they were all meeting. "I mean…what if…?"_

"_It won't," Ino assured Hinata, as if reading her mind. "We've known them since we were practically in diapers for crying out loud! There's no way- Oh! There's Tenten." Ino waved at Tenten who was at the other side of the shop, looking for them. "Yo Tenten! Over here!" _

_Tenten turned her head in Ino's direction and her face looked relieved to have found them. She seldom came to Ichiraku, as she was never a big fan of Ramen. Only she kept that little factoid to herself when in the company of Naruto._

"_Hey guys," Tenten walked over, smirking. "So I guess this is it, huh?" _

"_Unfortunately," replied Sakura, nodding limply. She sighed. "But we had to do it sometime."_

"_See?" Ino said. "Look at it that way. Now, guys…" She huddled them closer. "As I was saying, we've known them forever. They have to feel the same thing, they just have too much pride to admit it. So…if we admit it first, then they will finally admit it too! Or at least I think that's the most practical way to see it." She looked at Sakura for plan analysis. "What're your thoughts Sakura?"_

"_Too many of them to say," she replied. She checked the time. "But if we want to catch them before their mission, we better go do this now."_

"_Oooh dear…" Hinata said nervously, feeling like she was going to spew._

"_Let's just get it over with," Tenten sighed, but smiled as if it would be liberating for her to carry this out._

"_Finally," Ino sighed, tired of having to be the instigator of a plan they had all agreed to. "Now let's track them down."_

"_You make it sound like we're going hunting," chuckled Hinata._

"_In a way, we are," Tenten added. "_Guy _hunting." _

"_Right," Ino laughed. "Now let's go."_

"_God help us," Sakura whimpered._

All of their thoughts immediately stopped there. None of them wanted to continue to the more painful part of the memory.

All they could do right then is try to do anything but cry at how stupid they sounded in retrospect, thinking up this pathetic little _plan _to admit to the guys how they felt.

And it took those same guys to make them feel this stupid.

Hinata looked away from them all, noticing the state of sadness she had put them all in upon suggesting they were at fault for the feud.

"You're right," Hinata said softly. "I just thought…it was silly. I'm sorry."

All the girls went silent again as Hinata began to gargle. They were all the thinking on the same exact memory- the memory that ruined everything. It made them sad. It made them angry with the boys. But mostly…it made them angry with themselves.

"Should…" Hinata awkwardly interrupted the second silence. "Should we start now?" She wiped her mouth and walked out of the bathroom.

"Will do," Ino said, moving one long side of her hair behind her shoulder. She picked up her script as she joined the small circle they all were sitting in on her floor. The rest of them took their scripts out as well and set them on their laps. They flipped to the first page.

The girls had decided to read each of their lines aloud, figuring that it would make it easier for all of them. They were going to have to recite their lines with one another anyway sooner or later, so it was perfect.

Well, not really, but you know.

"All right," Tenten began, clearing her throat as she turned over onto her stomach. "Scene one- 'Undeserved Punishment.' How appropriate."

They all laughed at Tenten's wisecrack, then dove right into the script. All thoughts of the memory were ignored, but none of them stopped looming over the girls' consciences. Not really.

**Sorry, can't make a good AN here…but please RandR if you feel like doing so! And you can keep beating me with your stupid sticks if you like. **


	9. Scene One Coincidence?

**I'm so sorry guys. I know, again, it's been forever, you know the drill. (sheepishly tosses you all brand new stupid sticks.) They've got your names on them if it makes any difference.**

**Well, I got really psyched up, because the play I'm in opens tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous at the same time. Hehe. I have to fall in love with a boy two years younger than me. Awkward, but we got over it really fast.**

**Sorry about the lack of guys here, but this is when the lingering question is answered?**

**WHAT WAS IT THAT CREEPED THE BOYS OUT SO?**

Chapter 8:

Scene One Coincidence

"Hey guys…" Tenten suddenly interjected, only seconds before the girls began reading the script.

"What now?" Ino grumbled, irritated at the recurring hiatuses that seemed to be taking place.

"…Do you really want to read all this tonight?"

"It's only the first scene," Hinata pointed out.

"Yeah, but look," Tenten fingered through the pages, counting in her head, then slowly aloud. "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Twenty pages. And those aren't even the page numbers. Those are actual pages, as in content front and back."

"In other words, forty pages," Sakura cleared up.

"Funny."

"I guess you're right…" Ino agreed half reluctantly. "But we still need to know the basic idea, all that stuff, you know?"

"Leave it to Ino to supply the in-depth descriptions," Sakura remarked sarcastically. Ino shoved her but smiled. "But she's right. We should at least read the last couple pages, just to get the general idea."

"We probably should," agreed Hinata, not bothering to stifle her large yawn. "Because I'm really tired. Needless to say, jail wasn't all that comfy."

"I know what you mean…" Tenten muttered, thinking back to the rude awakening by Beef Man back at the station. She went back to her script and flipped to the end of scene one. "Alright," she said, pointing to a line. "Page eighteen, line four just after the break looks pretty good. I think it's Hinata's line first."

All the girls turned to the page to Hinata's line, and they began.

_(Teacher, Mr. Mars, grabs Kailey, Amber, Lydia, Mindy Ryan, Tyler, Cody and Jake, by collars)_

_Mindy: Ow!_

_Mr. Mars: What do we have here?_

_Ryan: Urgh…just half my shirt…_

_Mr. Mars: Aren't you smart. Tell me, since you're so intelligent, why don't you explain to me why the gym is in such a wreck, hm?_

_(All eight boys and girls go silent, having no recollection of the gym they had just left fifteen minutes ago being 'trashed')_

_Kailey: But…it's not trashed._

_Mr. Mars: Don't pull that. You are the only ones who could have done all that vandalism in such a short time. Everyone else went home after the game._

_Lydia: Seriously, we didn't do anything._

_Mr. Mars: Right. Looks like I'll be seeing you all in after school detention for the next two weeks. I won't need to be telling you how you will serve it. (Mock enthusiasm) Oh, and I have a grand idea! Why don't you all just serve your first one right now? It'll give us some quality time to spend together!_

_(Dead silence)_

_Amber: (Struggling for excuse.) Erm, what about our parents? They're going to pick us up in a few minutes and-_

_Mr. Mars: Then I guess you're going to have to give them a call, now won't you? Or, of course, I could do it for you. Your choice._

_(Eight guys and girls, still oblivious to what they had done, sheepishly take out their cell phones. Mr. Mars starts heading off to the school, keys jangling in his hands. All the teens look at him strangely._

_Mr. Mars: What? Can you not walk and talk at the same time?_

_(Students grumpily walk as they dial parents' numbers on their cell phones)_

_(In classroom)_

_Mr. Mars: You can all have a seat._

_(Students all sit. None of them fail to notice the goth-looking boy in the far corner of the desks, looking depressed and most likely under the influence.)_

_Mr. Mars: (noticing this) Oh, in case you are wondering, that's Jason. You'll be getting to know each other pretty well for the duration of these fun-filled two weeks, as he will assist you in cleaning up the gym._

_Tyler: Clean up the gym?_

_Mr. Mars: What, were you expecting a well-written Breakfast Club essay on why what you did was wrong and how you'll never do it again? Think again. I'll be keeping an eye on all nine of you._

_(Everyone grumbles. Mr.Mars looks at his watch.)_

_Mr. Mars: Ah, what do you know, time flies when you're having fun. My explaining your punishment to you only took a mere two minutes. Congrats, congrats. _

_(Mars goes into closet and pulls out mops, brooms, washcloths and many other cleaning supplies. He tosses one to each of the kids, including Jason.)_

_Mr. Mars: (smiling) Looks like you better get started._

_(All nine of the teens walking to the gym, not in the company of Mars.)_

_Jason: (sarcasm implied) I gotta hand it to ya._

_Ryan: And what do you mean by that?_

_Jason: You managed to successfully tear down the interior of a school gym undetected. What are you guys, toddlers? If you wanna really climb the chain, you need to shoot bigger. I'm talking public establishments, political buildings…_

_Cody: Look, are you stoned or something?_

_Jason: (looks at Cody with bloodshot eyes) Oh my, do I look stoned? (looks down at his worn down appearance) Couldn't tell. Thanks for that one, man._

_Amber: Why are you so snappy?_

_Jason: (Knowingly annoying) Does it turn you on or somethin?_

_Cody: Look dude, if we're going to have to spend the next two weeks of our after school time together, you're going to need to learn some people skills._

_Jason: Ah, sorry man, but I'm afraid it's going to be you guys who are going to be learning some people skills from _me

_Lydia: Meaning?_

_Jason: You all supposedly hate each other, right? And don't look all surprised. Everyone knows._

_(All nod)_

_Jason: (smiling) Then you'll just have to see, now won't you?_

_(All are still confused over what he said, but are cut short when they arrive at the gym.)_

_Mindy: Oh my gosh…_

_Jake: Something tells me this was no accident._

_(all stare up at a torn down gym.)_

END SCENE 

Sakura dropped her script in front of her and sucked her lips in. Everyone was silent.

"Well…"she said. "That was definitely interesting…put aside the fact that it won't be possible to put a gym in a play."

"Yeah," choked Ino slightly. "But you know Kurenai, she's got a plan for everything."

"Yeah…" Hinata agreed, hugging her knees to her chest as she rocked back and forth. Tenten gave a simple nod.

A hiatus.

And then a united, "WHAT THE HELL????" Only Hinata said "heck."

They all looked at each other in disbelief. Ino began breathing heavily in a hyperventilating manner. "Okay guys, calm down, it's probably just a really, really, really, weird coincidence, okay?" Her breathing grew faster. "Just calm down guys, just calm down, EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!"

Sakura gave Ino a slap, hard enough to make her snap out of it, but not hard enough to really hurt her. "YOU FIRST!" she exclaimed. Ino stopped breathing heavily and took one deep breath and let out.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Just got a little panicked."

"Yeah, no kidding," said Tenten. She looked down at the script. "This can't just be a coincidence. This is all just too…"

BAM BAM BAM.

"Hm?"

"The door…"

BAM BAM BAM.

"Ino, did you invite anyone else?"

"No…" Ino got up out of her sleeping back and left the room. The girls all listened intently, though none others of them left.

They heard Ino open the door.

"Officer Ross!" They heard Ino say intentionally loudly so they could hear her. "What are you doing here…" They all heard the footsteps of Ino and Ross come closer to the door. They sat up.

"I'm sorry to ruin your night ladies," Ross said apologetically, leaning against the doorway as he swung handcuffs around his fingers. "But I'm under official police orders. You girls are going to have to come with me."

The girls gulped. Go with him. And something told them that this wasn't exactly going to be a girl's night out.

**Ok, I know that in a "scene", there should technically only be one "scene", not three consisting of an outside, a classroom and a gym, but I had to put that all in. I'm so sorry guys. Let the use of the stupid sticks continue. BOYS AND GIRLS WILL UNITE NEXT CHAPTER!**

**Casting Reminder:**

**T- kailey**

**I-Amber**

**S-Lydia**

**H-Mindy**

**SA-Ryan**

**NE-Tyler**

**SH-Cody**

NA-Jake


	10. Interrupting the Final Word

**Hey guys. I know this horrifically long interval is inexcusable, but I do have my reasons as to why it happened. I won't go into it, but trust me here, had I been able to, I would have updated immediately. **

**I had half this finished before the interval and finished the rest tonight. The new chapter will come quicker. I really am so sorry.**

Chapter 10:

Interrupting the Final Word

"Sir, I think you're overreacting a bit…"

"Shut up."

"Yes, Sir."

The Creep furiously dismissed Ross and swung his head over to the eight confused teens sitting before him once again. All eight were in their pajamas, irritated, and half asleep despite the current situation.

"Look at me when I talk to you, damn it!" He spat at them, although he had not been talking to them in the first place.

All eight drowsily lugged their heads up in reluctance. What had they done this time? Was there a new law passed forbidding a full nights sleep? If not, they were at a loss for what they could have done...or in this case, allegedly done.

"Dude," sighed Naruto, uncaring of his manners in all his tiredness. "What's the deal? I could be asleep now."

"Well, _dude," _snapped The Creep, swiping a file off the table. "It would appear that some wise guy—" he glanced at all of them "Or in this case, wise _group_—decided it would be a good idea to trash the _inside _of the theater this time around!"

He looked around at the series of blank, flabbergasted faces in front of him. Hinata gave Tenten a questioning nudge, who returned it with a bewildered look.

"Now I see why you all are starring in that play," The Creep laughed to himself. "Your acting is impeccable."

"Sir," Shikamaru finally sighed, as if implying he had better things to do than be interrogated. "None of us left our houses tonight after the cleanup."

The Creep was clearly not convinced as he crossed his arms in mock confusion. "And you would know this, how?"

"Because I was talking to the other guys on the phone," Shikamaru explained slowly, as if talking to a three-year-old. "And apparently the girls were all at Ino's." He hitched his head in the direction of the girls.

"It's true," Ino piped up from her seat. "Ross can even tell you. He's the one that picked us up!" Shikamaru gave Ino a look and Ino gave him one back. The look was a bit iffy, rather indescribably. It was a way of agreeing to side with each other to save themselves, feud aside…but only this once.

"Ah, so you _did _act as a group!" The Creep spun to Ino and flung an accusatory finger at her.

Ino's eyes grew wide as everyone set their jaw.

"What- no, I…what?" Ino stuttered in defense, tripping over her words. "I just-"

"Say no more!" The Creep stopped her in her sentence as he began scribbling down on a file. "I'll really have you punks now…"

"Uh…Sir?"

"What, ponytail boy?"

Thankfully, for everyone's safety, Neji ignored this.

"What makes you so driven to throw us in jail? There are plenty of other delinquents around here to choose from."

Tenten sputtered a small giggle but quickly silenced it. She didn't bother to hide the smile, though.

The Creep's eyes widened as if said idea had not occurred to him. "Ah…well. Isn't it obvious??? You were the ones to have the key last!" He smiled with a sense of accomplishment, pulling out the wrinkles on his jacket before he crossed his arms smugly over his chest.

"Hate to spoil your fun," Sasuke said dully, putting his feet up on The Creep's desk, who swatted them back down immediately. "But we don't have the key."

The girls all stopped breathing right then. Sasuke wasn't lying but…it wasn't exactly completely truthful either. The _guys _may not have the key, but…the girls still did. Sakura looked at Ino with a face that had "Oh, shit" written all over it.

As if reading her mind, The Creep looked at the girls and raised an overly bushy eyebrow. "Is this true, ladies?"

His eyes panned over each girl. _Who would be the most vulnerable is such a situation…_

Then his eyes hit Hinata. A smile crept up his face as he thought maliciously, _perfect._

"Ah, young miss Hyuuga," he said, strolling over to the side of Hinata's chair, placing a bony hand upon her shoulder. Hinata went solid as a rock. "You don't seem like the lying type, now do you?"

Hinata didn't look at him, nor did she say anything. As much as she had tried to gain her will to stand up for herself over the years, in the face of the law system, who could blame her for being freaked out? Particularly when you had the hand of a potential sexual predator having a firm hold on your shoulder…

…Too firm, actually. In fact, he was now squeezing Hinata's shoulder harder and harder, his fingers digging into the most uncomfortable trenches between her bones. She looked up at him, but his innocent (hey underlying evil) smile remained constant. This was bad…especially since no one else could tell that he was basically trying to squeeze the truth out of her.

"Erm…" Hinata mumbled, her eyes darting around. The action alone should have given them away immediately, but The Creep seemed to enjoy keeping her in the uncomfortable situation.

"Yes?" The Creep signaled for her to go on, his fingers digging deeper.

Hinata cringed. She had to give up. Any more and she could swear that her shoulder would give.

"We might…possibly…have a key."

Naruto rolled his eyes. _Bravo, Hinata._

"Ah! Might possibly have a key, she says! Did you here that, Mr. Uchiha?" The Creep patted Hinata on the shoulder he had been crushing seconds before and loomed over to Sasuke. "The young Hyuuga says they _might possibly have a key. _Yet…you claim that you didn't? You know what that's called?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Humor me?"

"Funny. It's called _perjury _Mr. Uchiha."

Sakura cleared her throat, getting The Creep's attention. He turned to her oddly.

"Problem, Miss Haruno?"

"Uh….yeah," she said looking at Sasuke who was looking back at her questioningly. _What's she doing? _"It's not perjury."

"Oh?" The Creep said in shock at the fact he was being corrected by a minor. "And you would know this, how?"

"Because," Sakura explained, tearing her eyes from Sasuke's. _Help him to help us all. That's what I'm doing. Helping him to help us all. Yeah. _"Perjery mainly pertains to lying under oath in court or under a justice. Sasuke wasn't under any kind of oath."

Well, it was the best she could do. _Sue me. _

But Sasuke looked at her as if she had just offered him all the world's gold. _Why the hell is he looking at me like that? Surprised I have a brain? _However, looking deeper into his deep-as-ocean-blue eyes, she could tell that under all that hate he had harbored for her over the last couple years…he was grateful?

Sasuke. Uchiha. Grateful. The three words strung together were the last thing Sakura ever expected to see. But right then, she could.

But yeah, back to the situation at hand.

"Perhaps," The Creep snapped irritably, straightening his tie. "But let's make clear that he was still _lying _to a cop."

Sakura was about to respond with some kind of stupid defense, but there was a loud knock at the door.

"What?" Snapped Creep, in other words, willing the person to enter.

"Sir," Ross said quietly, opening the door ajar. "Me and some officers just investigated the entrances- them and the windows were pretty heavily locked. We had to break some of the back windows to get in."

"Question," Piped up Tenten. "If it was locked, how do you know it was trashed on the inside?"

Neji narrowed his eyes. _And when exactly did Tenten become deductive? _

"Saw it through a window," muttered Ross, clearly embarrassed at the unprofessional measures taken to discover this.

"Wow," whistled Tenten, nodding. "You really did go out of your way to reprimand us, huh?"

"Well, of course they're locked!" Shouted The Creep, ignoring Tenten as he glared at the teens. "These ingrates had the measly _key _all along. That in itself is proof enough that they have clearly been the ones responsible for all of this-"

"Permission to speak, Sir?"

"Fine. Make it quick."

"_I_ have the key."

The Creep blinked. _"What?"_

The girls were just as shocked. _WHAT?_

"Relax," sighed Ross, pulling the keys out of his pocket as he sauntered over. "Found them on the table at Miss Yamanaka's home. Seeing as the chain was labeled 'theater keys', I could only assume they were…well, the theater keys."

Ino's jaw dropped open. _He did _not_ go through my stuff!_

"Ah," said The Creep in relief. "So I was right in my suspicions…you kids DID commit this heinous act, and if one more person dares to interrupt my final word, I SWEAR--"

"It was me."

All heads immediately snapped up. They knew the voice…and it didn't belong to any of the eight teens.

**Sucked, I know. Again, I'm so sorry.**


	11. What You Say and What You Mean

**Long chapter coming up to compensate for my lack of responsibility for the past month. I hope you guys like it. LOTS of angst and pairing things coming up as well. **

Chapter 11:

What You Say and What You Mean

"I should have known," laughed The Creep.

Ross pressed his palm to his forehead. "You've got to be kidding me…"

West stood in the doorway, leaning up against it with his arms crossed casually over his buff chest, light brown hair hanging messily in front of blue eyes that looked darker than their true nature.

"Swiped the key off blondie the other day," he explained, popping his gum as he gestured to the flustered Ino. "Figure I'd have some fun while I'm still free."

"You're _not _free you worm!" Creep exclaimed, holding up an incredibly thick file. "You're on _probation _in case that means anything to you at all?"

"Not in particular, no."

"Wait, hold on," said Ross, waving his hands around. "If _you _had the key, what do _I _have?"

"A faulty," shrugged West, smiling proudly at having double-crossed his cop brother. "Slipped it into blondie's bag after tagging it. Just as I thought, she couldn't tell the difference."

Ino wanted to die then and there.

_What am I? _Ino asked herself, mentally kicking herself. _A key vendor? Anyone who wants a key can just pluck one off me? _

"You do know what this is going to cost you, don't you?" Ross glared at his little brother.

"Ah, sorry to disappoint you, bro," said West, swaggering in after he made his proclamation. "I'm just a free spirit at heart."

"More like a psycho turned loose upon the world," Ross corrected, sighing.

"Ross!"

Ross straightened his posture and turned to face The Creep. "Sir?"

"Outside, now. We're going to have to discuss this…" He glanced at West. "Dramatic turn of events."

Ross cast one last solemn look at his delinquent brother before looking back at the Creep. "Yes, Sir."

The two left the room.

Just as they left, West strolled over to The Creep's rolling chair and sat in it, placing his feet atop the desk, ignoring all the files he was crumpling and dirtying.

"Why'd you do it?" Ino asked him straight up. "And furthermore, why did you admit to it?"

West ignored her. He deepened his uncaring demeanor as he leaned back in the chair and scooted over so he was next to Shikamaru on the end of the row of chairs.

Tenten nudged Ino and looked at her. _What's his deal? _She mouthed. Ino looked back at West and slowly shook her head unknowingly.

West whistled lowly as he put his arms behind his head. "Hm, now that I think of it, this _is_ pretty intimidating. No wonder pipsqueak over there ratted out about the key."

Hinata's face fell as the girls sent him evil glares. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

_Hey! _He thought, glaring at West. _No one mocks Hinata but ME! You hear? ME. _

Naruto caught a glance of Hinata to see she was staring back at him. She looked away quickly, but not before Naruto registered the amount of hurt and embarrassment in her face.

"Shut up, man," Naruto barked at him finally.

West's eyebrows shot up as he swiveled toward Naruto. "Scuse?"

As Wests sharp eyes met his own, Naruto faltered immediately. "Uh…y'heard…" He mumbled, looking away slightly.

West looked more amused than annoyed at Naruto's comment. "Oh? I thought you two hated each other."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. _Funny, _he thought. _I thought we did, too. _

"Why did you admit that you did it?" Ino suddenly interrupted, looking forward and not at West.

"Playing hero, huh?" He made a point of ignoring Ino as he hissed this to Naruto.

Naruto was ready to respond when The Creep and Ross re-entered the room. Even so, West held his gaze steady on Naruto until Ross spoke up.

"All right, bro," he said, walking over to West and yanking him out of the chair by his collar. Once on his feet, West yanked it back. "You got off easy this time."

"You'll be cleaning the theater for the next week," The Creep announced, scribbling down the charge on his file. "You'll be spending your nights at the jail and after this week, your community service will be doubled."

West's eyes went from normal too wide as the last bomb was dropped. "…Doubled?" He asked, looking for the very first time, afraid. "That's two years. Every day?"

"Starting to regret your actions now, boy?" Creep asked, flashing a triumphant smile in West's direction.

"That's insane," West argued, flames almost bursting in his eyes. "I didn't hurt anyone!"

"Calm down, West!" Scolded Ross. "You've been doing shit like this ever since mom died. You're lucky you didn't end up with two years in prison for this one!"

This one seemed to have struck West somewhere deep. His arms slowly dropped from an argumentative position to limp at his sides. His hair was now over his face so one could not tell if he was crying or not, but by the way his back was shaking ever so slightly, it looked like it.

"F-f…fine," he said shakily, looking at his hands. "But how am I supposed to reconstruct a whole damn theater, _bro?" _He snapped this at Ross, as his West attitude started to return to him.

"That's where these eight come in," said Creep, pointing at the teens.

"Are you kidding me??" Tenten cried. "We didn't do anything! We didn't even have the key."

"Ah, but you did in fact vandalize the outside a few days ago, have you forgotten?"

"That's…" Tenten was ready to deny it when she remembered what Shikamaru told them when he turned them in the day before. _It's an excuse to investigate. _"…The point is, we weren't there last night."

"Well…" Creep said, pacing. "That's just it! You _should_ have been there! If you had continued to clean up, you surely would have caught him in the act!"

"Wait, what?" Tenten asked, wrinkling her eyebrows. "No one said we—"

"I've heard enough. Take them away, Ross!"

Everyone immediately looked at West as Ross began to gather the files up ready to leave. West had his hair still shielding his face from view, but his shaking subsided.

Ino stopped in her steps as she noticed this. A pain was ringing in her gut as she wanted to continue, but seeing him in such a vulnerable state made her feel safe to say something.

As she walked towards him, Shikamaru grabbed her elbow. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed in her ear.

"I just…" Ino looked at West then back at Shikamaru. "He looks sad."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Well, Ino, if I was just assigned two years of daily community service and reconstruction and jail time for the next week, I'd be pretty bummed out too." His grip on her elbow loosened slightly, but he didn't let go.

"It was a bit harsh of them," Ino defended, her eyes becoming softer.

"He deserved it, Ino," Shikamaru sighed. "Remember everything he's done? Remember the way he treated you? You should be happy he's getting busted."

"What do you care?" Ino suddenly snapped at him, ripping her elbow away. "You don't care about me. Or him. You never have. Why should it matter do you?"

Shikamaru paused for a second as his eyes strayed from Ino's. "It doesn't," he finally said.

"Then stop trying to control me," Ino hissed, narrowing her eyes.

At this Shikamaru straightened his posture, the cold look he had in his eyes towards her for the last couple of years returning. "Fine."

"Fine." With that, Ino turned away from him and walked over to West.

Shikamaru turned away as well, sparing one last glance back at Ino walking to West. "Good luck with her, bud," he said to himself. "You're gonna need it."

Once Ino got to West she lightly put a hand on his shoulder. He turned around so sharply that she immediately yanked it off.

"Sorry," she said softly, looking away from him. "Are you…ok?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" He asked her, his bangs clearing his eyes just enough for Ino to see his anger.

"What?" she asked, dumbfounded. He seemed to have a liking for ignoring every question she asked.

"That guy over there. Shikamaru, or whatever. Why'd you say that to him?"

Ino opened her mouth to speak, her jaw shaking. "You…you heard that."

"I did," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "And let me tell you, you're more blind than my grandma."

Ino scoffed. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"He's got it bad for you, and you're too obsessed with telling yourself you hate him to care!" West jabbed a finger at Ino as she stood dumbstruck.

"You're confused," Ino said. "It's…" She was about to say 'the other way around' but caught herself. "…Not like that. You don't even know."

"Don't I?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "After watching you guys yesterday, I had definite suspicions, but after seeing you defend each other today, I'm sure of it now. And that goes for the rest of your friends, too. So give up this whole charade, because you're not fooling anyone."

Ino was at a loss for words as the corner of her mouth twitched. Charade? Oh, no no no…he was not about to make her look like the antagonist here.

"Why don't you stay out of things you don't know half about?" Ino scolded him, clenching her fists. "In case you haven't noticed, we were all a lot better off before you came around."

"Yes, I do tend to have that affect on people," West shrugged simply, giving a painfully carefree smile that made Ino want to kill him. "Hence why I always act alone. You and your friends continue pushing away what's right in front of you, and you'll be that way too."

He walked away. Ino watched him as the last thing he said sank in. West was wrong. She just knew it.

* * *

"Ah, back here again," Ross said, pulling into the parking lot of the Mantwell theater once more. "Hey, guys, do me a favor and let's try not to make this a big habit, eh? Stuff's in the back. You know the drill."

"Joy," Tenten sang sarcastically to herself as they all unbuckled their seat belts.

"Seriously," Neji agreed under his breath as he got out of the car. Tenten stopped where she was.

"Whoa, now this is weird," she said, her eyes wide.

"What is?" Neji asked irritably, turning back to her, a blank look on his face.

Tenten put her hand to her chest in mock-disbelief. "I think you just agreed with me."

Neji just gave a loud laugh and turned completely to face her as she jumped out of the car. She almost flinched. Neji laughing. _Pleasant change from using his Byakugan to see into my fear, I guess. _

"Not you, per se," Neji said, narrowing his eyes in thought. "The message you implied in question was a unanimously agreeable opinion, so my agreeing didn't entail any sort of conformity with you."

"Don't think I'm too stupid to know what all of those big words meant," Tenten pointed out angrily, jabbing a finger at his chest. He raised his eyebrows and looked down at the place she poked him. _Did she just _poke _me? _"…Because I definitely did."

Neji smirked. "I should hope so," he said, rounding the truck to once again unload the trunk with the others "I wouldn't want you getting the idea that we were actually on the same wavelength, there."

"Oh, sorry," Tenten said, looking up from the bin she was struggling to lift. "Were you under the impression I was listening to you just then? Wow, that must have been awkward for you."

Neji removed some brooms from the trunk and made a point of lifting them with ease, earning a scowl from Tenten.

"I wouldn't imagine you would have been listening," Neji said as-a-matter-of-factly. "You would be one to daydream about the large eyebrows of a certain team mate."

Tenten's face was at first shocked until it melted into pleasure once she remembered the particular upper hand she could get over dangling this in his face.

"Well, his eyebrows are certainly some of his more alluring assets," Tenten sighed. _Lie, _she thought, cringing within. _Ew, total lie. _

"I'm sure they are if you enjoy looking into feather dusters and squirrel tails," Neji agreed sarcastically, hoisting the brooms and mops underneath his arm.

"You're just jealous that you get more hair on your head than your body," Tenten accused him, putting some rags in the bucket before picking it up.

And it wasn't until a few seconds later did she realize how wrong that sounded.

Neji's normally pale face flushed as much as Tenten's.

"As much as I'd like to discuss my body hair," he informed her, turning away from her as she stood in embarrassed silence. "I think I'd rather go try on my fitted green jumpsuit and prance around the meadows."

"Lee does not prance," Tenten finally sputtered protectively.

"Sure," Neji said, unconvinced. "So he was just taking an enthusiastic stroll that one day when we trained in the field."

Tenten bit her lip. Okay, point taken. "He had some Sake that day, you know how he gets."

"Well, at least he drinks responsibly."

Tenten's eyes twitched at this sarcastic side of Neji she had never seen before. "Like you've never drank in your life," she scoffed at him.

"As a matter of fact, I have not," Neji informed her, giving her a triumphant smile.

"Ha," Tenten laughed, pushing past him. "Doubtful. Highly doubtful. With those dinner parties held religiously at the Hyuuga mansion, something tells me alcoholic beverages are something you are more than acquainted with."

Neji caught up with her. "Acquainted with, yes," he admitted. "Infatuated with, no."

"Oh?" Tenten questioned, still unbelieving of this claim. "And what makes you so resistant?"

"Do you know why, among the many reasons, grown ups enjoy drinking wine?" Neji asked her.

Tenten stopped at looked at him oddly, curious as to what he was getting at. "Uh…taste?"

This was obviously the wrong answer, seeing as Neji proceeded to give her the correct answer.

"Because it makes them feel more…" Neji's face seemed to twitch as Tenten could tell the next word was going to be something strongly un-Neji-like. "…Sensual."

Tenten sucked her lips in to keep from laughing.

_Aw hell, _she thought. _Too late for that._

She laughed. "Oh, come _on_," she spat between laughs. "You're saying the passive Hyuuga's drink wine for the soul purpose of getting horny?"

Neji's face, instead of blushing, blanched completely. Tenten was loving every minute of this humiliation she was putting him through.

"You…you twisted my words," he told her, jabbing a finger in her direction.

"Did not," Tenten retorted, smiling evilly at the upper hand she was getting. "But wow! So you don't drink to avoid being horny? Must say, Neji. Your will power impresses me."

Neji's face went even paler as he looked frustrated. "Well, that's not what I meant," he said irritably as he began walking, only to have Tenten traipse behind. He let out a heavy sigh as he spun around to face her. "Don't you have anything better to do then mock me?"

Tenten scoffed. "Like you don't live and breathe to mock me?"

"Believe it or not Tenten, I do have a life that resides outside of defending myself from your personal attacks," Neji informed her as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I'm so not the oppressor here," Tenten spat, holding her hands up defensively. "You—" She stopped mid sentence. She looked at Neji.

Neji looked back at her, his white eyes holding bitterness and resentment, but still sentiment and sorrow. Tenten knew why. And she hated it. It was the first time their eyes had met and exchanged something worse than blind hatred.

"—you know what you did," she whispered before closing her eyes and bumping past him. She couldn't look at him after that.

Neji didn't have any more of a wish to look at her either. For the first time, he felt it was best to let her win and let her walk. And for the first time, he also wondered why it was so hard to let himself do that in the past.

_Why can't I let her walk away?_

* * *

Ross and Sakura were already done unloading their half of the supplies, their being the most efficient of the group. _Makes us perfect together, _the adolescent side of Sakura's brain told her euphorically. 

_Also reminds you he's six years older than you, _the realistic side of her mind reminded her.

The next thing she saw was Sasuke's face from the day before, lecturing her obnoxiously; _Put down the romance novels and keep dreaming._ Her face dropped.

"Something wrong?" Ross turned to her as he set a cooler down, noticing this. Sakura's expression lifted at his sign of care.

"Naw. Why?"

"Your face suddenly became solemn," he told her, his face becoming curious, either in the cop-who-must-care-for-their-city kind of way, or the I-really-care-about-your happiness kind of way. Sakura hoped it was the latter. "Something happen?"

_Yeah, _Sakura thought, inwardly rolling her eyes. _Sasuke frickin Uchiha happened. _

"Did Sasuke say something that got to you?"

Sakura looked up at him, surprised at his noticing this at first, then remembered the shield she had put up for the last couple years.

"Ha!" Sakura laughed incredulously, sitting down on the step. "Sasuke getting in my head. He wishes."

Ross raised his eyebrows as he sat down beside her. "I kind of think he does."

Sakura's face looked confused for a few seconds before she processed what he had meant. Then, her face dissolved in even more laughter.

"Sasuke? Are you kidding?" Sakura laughed. "That guy doesn't give two amebas about me."

"Is that what he tells you?"

Sakura stopped laughing as she looked at Ross oddly. "Well, basically, yeah."

"Then you seem to take what he says to heart."

"No!" Sakura defended all too quickly. "I mean, not like that. His opinion really isn't a big virtue of mine if you haven't noticed, and something tells me the feeling is mutual."

"Oh, I think you guys are definitely mutual about a feeling," Ross agreed, nodding. "But you've got the feeling all wrong."

Sakura felt like she had been slapped. People had never suspecting anything deeper in their arguments with guys than pure annoyance and hatred. Why was it suddenly such a big deal lately?

"Hey, do you mind?" A dull voice said from above Sakura.

_Speak of the devil._

"Sorry," Sakura muttered, not looking at Sasuke as she scooted over, giving him clearance to walk up the step.

_Wow, she obeyed, _Sasuke thought with shock. _Something's definitely not right…_

Sasuke then noticed how close Sakura and Ross were sitting beforehand. "Hope I didn't interrupt anything," he said bitterly.

"Oh, you didn't," Ross said happily, clearly enjoying the coincidence. He looked at Sakura. "We were just talking about you, actually."

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in surprise as he looked from the embarrassed Sakura to Ross. "Oh, really."

"No!" Sakura sputtered, shaking her head. "Not in the way you're thinking, that is."

Sasuke grinned at Sakura's discomfort. "Then in what way were you talking about me?"

"Oh you know, the usual stuff," Sakura explained shrugging. "Like what you're gonna do when you're and old geezer without strength, looks or soccer skills to help carry you through life."

"Oh, how flattering," Sasuke said sarcastically. "But you left out my impeccable dancing skills."

"Funny." Sakura sneered lividly. _Damn Sasuke. Ruining me and Ross's moment. _She then thought about what Ross told her. _Damn Ross. Picking through me and Sasuke's relationship._

_What the hell, WHAT relationship???_

"Why are you still here?" Sakura asked Sasuke, looking back up to see him still standing there expectantly.

"I asked a question," Sasuke reminded her.

"And I answered it," Sakura said perkily.

"Not the right answer."

"You seem to be quite interested in the answer," Sakura observed, standing up and crossing her arms over her tank-top clad torso. "Why might that be, all-knowing Uchiha?"

"Not interested," Sasuke told her quickly. "Curious."

"What the hell, they're the same thing," Sakura sighed in annoyance, dropped her arms.

"Not really," Sasuke pointed out, wrinkling his brow.

"We were discussing your inner feelings for each other."

Sasuke looked over at Ross, clearly not ready for that one. Sasuke gaped at him in betrayal. _Last time I talk to that traitor! Even if he is a hot traitor._

_I can only hope that will work, _Ross prayed.

"Trust me, my feelings for that thing next to you run no deeper than the lobe of my brain that registers irritation and produces headaches," Sasuke explained to Ross, gesturing to the now angry Sakura, who took two steps toward him, close enough that she was centimeters away…well, centimeters away, but inches shorter.

"You're a real bastard you know that?" She told him, glaring up at him.

"So they tell me," Sasuke muttered back, clearly the only one of the two of them noticing the lack of space in between them.

_Eh, _Ross thought regretfully. _Maybe I came on a bit too strong._

"Ha, so you _know _you're a bastard and don't do anything to change it," Sakura said with a laugh of fury. "That's an all new low."

"Well, well, little miss princess serenity," Sasuke immediately shot back at her. "I don't see you holding your tongue when the word 'bastard' happens to roll off of it like melted butter. And come to think of it, you're not such a saint when you're on my back about every frickin thing I do! Including this whole play in the first place."

"Huh, maybe that's because everything you frickin do revolves around making my life as miserable as humanly possible?" Sakura reminded him of this lividly.

"Is that what you think?"

"Honestly? Yes."

"Well, you know what—"

"Geez!!! This stuff's heavy as crap!"

Sasuke was cut off as Naruto trudged over, lugging a heavy bucket full of supplies. Behind him was Hinata, carrying broomsticks and mops. The two had not spoken or even argued since he defended her at the police station. Their gazes met and bounced away from each other like a pinball machine.

Sasuke tore his gaze away from Sakura immediately and stepped away from her as fast as he could. Sakura still looked at him, though. _What was he going to say?_

Shikamaru and Ino then arrived, only a fair distance from one another. The seldom times their eyes did meet, they were full of even more daggers and hatred than there were before. After their little skirmish at the station, even arguing seemed to feel too awkward.

Neji and Tenten came at different times, evidently refusing any kind of interaction also.

Ross looked on, obvious signs of disappointment at all the couple's complications. _Damn, so close. _He then looked at his watch.

"Looks like I gotta go now," Ross announced, stepping down from the step and heading towards the truck. "Don't do too much damage, alright kids?"

West walked by him right then, but his shoulder was soon caught by Ross's hand. "Hey, bro," he said, tossing him the 'faulty' key. "Cut me some slack and switch the keys back please?"

West's face didn't shift as he caught the keys and shrugged off his brother's hand. "Whatever."

"Thanks," Ross said, patting his shoulder and walking off.

When he was sure Ross was gone, West strolled up to the door and shoved the key in the lock.

"Hey," Hinata noticed, looking at him oddly before he had a chance to turn it. "I thought you said that was a faulty?"

"Ooh, whoopee, I lied," West told her, rolling his eyes. Naruto glared at him, feeling a foreign sense of annoyance at Hinata's mistreatment that he couldn't single handedly explain.

"Why?" Ino asked boldly, still angry about earlier. "And again, please tell us why you admitted it was you? Why would you take those punishments willingly?"

At this, West finally had enough. He sighed and turned around to face all of them. He brought up his hands and spoke with mock-animation.

"You all want to know why I lied about the key?"

"No, we just enjoy asking," Shikamaru said sarcastically. West ignored him.

"Maybe because _I didn't do it to begin with," _West told them slowly as if they were illiterate.

All jaws dropped simultaneously. If he didn't trash the theater…who did? The question was big, but temporarily shoved out of their minds.

"No way," Ino said, shaking her head. "But that would mean you actually did something _kind _for us, and we know that wouldn't be possible."

West looked at her with a look of surrender. "Looks like there's a lot we don't know about each other, eh blondie?"

Ino blushed at this and looked away. _That's for damn sure._

"Jeez," Tenten said, the look of surprise evident on her face. "But…why did you say you did?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe hell froze over and I decided to cut you guys a break from the potential rapist my brother calls his boss," West shrugged. "Funny how people's standards for you can be set so low that they are more appalled than anything when you actually do something right."

This pretty much made everyone feel like crap for having treated him the way they did. Yeah, he was a delinquent. And yeah, he was intimidating. But he was human.

"Well," Tenten said fidgeting, feeling the need to say something. "If it's any consolation, I lost my—"

Apparently, her fidgeting caused an object to fall out of her pocket. And it happened to do so at the completely wrong time in front of the completely wrong person.

"Hey, it's that glass from earlier," Hinata said, stepping next to Tenten to get a closer look at it.

Neji's eye rose. _That glass. _

Tenten shrugged to Hinata. "Looks like it seems to be following me everywhere nowadays."

"A thief too, huh?"

Tenten looked up at Neji. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know," he glowered. "I thought I lost it at the station, but I should have known you'd be one to take something right off my person."

"What the hell?" Tenten exclaimed. "I found the glad at the station, I didn't steal it right off you, you have Byakugan for crying out loud, I'd be toast. And even if I could steal something off your person, I'd go for something a bit more extreme then a pretty piece of multicolored glass."

Neji was ready to make a comeback when he remembered something. "Is this anything like the glass you supposedly found at the theater before it supposedly was hit by an earthquake."

"Well…" said Tenten surprised. "…Yeah. Exactly, actually."

West rolled his eyes as the conversation slowly spiraled into a subject he didn't know and went back to the door.

Neji looked at the theater and the piece of glass. "Something's really weird about this…" He held it up to the light.

Just as he did, West opened the door.

And when he did, they were no longer on the front step of Mantwell Theater. Or Mantwell Theater at all.

**Very tired. Sorry for mistakes, it's really late, please excuse the ones you see, hopefully they won't throw you too much off track. If they do, I'll explain them to you. Thanks for reading guys. **


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